The International Cricket Council and UNAIDS will auction a full set of ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 signed bats from 1 to 10 December 2003 on eBay.co.uk to raise funds for a HIV/AIDS project in India.

As part of its partnership with UNAIDS, the ICC is providing a unique opportunity for cricket fanatics to bid for a set of 14 full-sized bats signed by all squad members of the competing teams at the ICC Cricket World Cup South Africa 2003.

The auction can be reached by visiting www.icc.cricket.org/unaids.

It will run from 1pm GMT on Monday 1 December to Wednesday 10 December. The bats ñ which have a reserve price of £10,000 - have been signed by all players at ICC CWC 2003.

Earlier this year the ICC entered into a strategic alliance with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) to take up the fight against HIV / AIDS in cricket-playing countries, some of which are hardest hit by the epidemic.

The start date of the auction is timed to coincide with World AIDS Day. To find out more about the strategic alliance between the ICC and UNAIDS visit www.icc.cricket.org/unaids or www.unaids.org.