HIV/AIDS education is key, says Zimbabwean cricketer Hamilton Masakadza

© UNICEF video

Zimbabwean cricketer Hamilton Masakadza supports Unite for Children. Unite against AIDS.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 has teamed up with Unite for Children. Unite against AIDS. Here is one in a series of 10 profiles of well known cricketers who are supporting the campaign.

HAMILTON MASAKADZA of Zimbabwe is a cricketing record breaker. Whilst still a schoolboy, he was the youngest player ever to score a test match century on debut which he did in 2001 against the West Indies.

However, for Masakadza, learning has been just as important as playing cricket. He has often put his career on hold in order to continue his studies at the University of the Free State in South Africa.

His analytical mind and his experience of life in both Zimbabwe and South Africa have led him to team up with the International Cricket Council, UNAIDS and UNICEF in promoting the Unite for Children. Unite against Aids campaign.

For Masakadza, the education of young people is of primary concern.

"I believe that prevention is the best way of dealing with AIDS because 40 per cent of new infections are in people between the age of 15 to 24,” he said in a recent interview. “And most of those young people don't believe that they are at risk from infection so I think that educating them will go a long way towards preventing it.

"Young people can protect themselves from HIV/AIDS by abstaining. I believe that sex is something meant for the confines of marriage and if they choose to have sex before they are married they should do it with one partner and they should learn to use condoms safely and consistently."

Throughout the crises that have gripped Zimbabwean cricket in recent years Hamilton Masakadza has achieved a remarkable amount on the cricket field. Not only the youngest test centurion on debut (until his record was taken by Mohammad Ashraful) he is also the youngest Zimbabwean to score a first class century and the first black player from that country to do so.

He is typical of so many international cricketers in that his point of view extends beyond the cricket pitch to wider issues outside the game and most importantly for him, towards the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Written and produced by Mont Tombleson