Becks and Andy's battle against malaria

London, Apr.21 (ANI): Soccer legend David Beckham and British tennis No1 Andy Murray took each other on at their rival sports at the home of English football yesterday to launch new charity Malaria No More UK.According to The Sun, malaria strikes down as many as 250 million people a year, killing more than a million, with one African child dying of the disease every 30 seconds.

Malaria is entirely preventable - and the key to avoiding it is a life-saving bed net to protect from the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite.

One net costs just five pounds. The Sun pictures show the two sporting heroes knocking up over the world's longest tennis net - a 74 yard blue malaria bed net.

Afterwards Andy told Becks: "I'm very surprised at your tennis skills."

They then lofted free kicks into a goal which was also made of bed nets and Becks told Hibernian fan Andy: "I've heard about your football skills. I'm still kind of surprised. Your free kicks were good."

Later the pair joined Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Denise Lewis in Downing Street - where another bed net was draped over the iconic No10 door - and they met Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who also writes in The Sun today, detailing Britain's efforts to defeat malaria.

The Sun began the campaign against malaria in 2007 with a visit to Nigeria with hammer attack victim Josie Russell. (ANI)