CaribWorldNews, LONDON, England, Tues. Dec. , 2009: As the world pauses to mark World AIDS Day today, Dec. 1st, some of the world`s best-known cricketers are calling for the international cricket community to continue to support calls for greater awareness to help continue the fight against HIV. 

Nathan Bracken, Isa Guha, Kumar Sangakkara, Graeme Smith and Virender Sehwag, champions of the THINK WISE campaign, are making the call.

The campaign helps to raise awareness about HIV amongst the cricket community, to make a positive impact on the lives of young people across the world and to help to prevent new HIV infections.  

`What cricket does well is bring people together in common spirit. We are doing our bit on World AIDS Day to help raise awareness, reduce discrimination and ultimately help to prevent HIV infections,` said Sri Lanka captain and THINK WISE champion Sangakkara.

`It is fantastic to see cricket being used as a force for social good and I hope the THINK WISE initiative will continue to gather momentum throughout the cricket community.`

Around 10 million people living with HIV are from Test-playing countries. This accounts for more than a quarter of all the people across the world that are HIV-positive. At major international matches (listed below) around World AIDS Day, players will be wearing red ribbons as a show of support for people living with HIV and the THINK WISE public service announcements will be played on big screens by host venues and broadcasters.  

`It is fantastic to see my team mates and other international teams around the world wearing the red ribbon in show of support for people living with HIV,` said Australian bowler and THINK WISE champion Nathan Bracken. 

`Everyone has a right to be treated fairly and that includes people living with HIV. By raising awareness and addressing the stigma sometimes associated with HIV we all hope that young people protect themselves against the virus.`

The THINK WISE initiative builds on a long-term partnership between the ICC, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UNICEF and the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) that for more than six years has reached out to the cricketing community to work together to respond to global AIDS crisis. 

The THINK WISE partnership seeks to educate cricket players, coaches, commentators, broadcasters, volunteers and spectators about the AIDS epidemic, particularly around prevention, and deliver these messages at major ICC events and international matches around World AIDS Day.