Watch: Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rayudu stand up for women’s rights

Hyderabad: A day prior to the quarterfinal match between India and Bangladesh in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, four Team India members spared a thought for the women of the country. Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu along with Team Director Ravi Shastri shot a video – on the request of the Hyderabad-based NGO ‘My Choices’ – speaking about women’s rights and the respect they deserve.

The pledge said, “Respect to Protect.”

Kohli said: “Protecting a woman means respecting her; protecting her choice to wear, to earn, to dream whatever she wants. Protect means respecting her independence, I will protect to respect.”

Rayudu, who began his career playing for Hyderabad, also raised an emphatic point.

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“Protecting a woman means respecting her; protecting her opportunity to be and do anything that her determination, ability and dreams will let her do. Protect means respecting her opportunity.” 

Though the World Cup has been hogging all the social media attention, the “Respect to Protect” campaign has been creating awareness as well with the hashtag #respect2protect on Twitter.

The counselling trainer of the NGO, Arshi Ayub, is the wife of Team India manager Arshad Ayub and that’s how the organisation got access to the cricketers.

“We asked them if they would like to be part of the campaign. And the boys were so enthusiastic to jump on board, despite the stress and schedule of the tournament. This video was shot a day before they took on Bangladesh,” informed Hannah Norling, the social media manager of the organisation.

The NGO has been counselling victims of abuse since June 2012 and has touched 1,319 cases with an 80 per cent success rate.