Rwanda’s field of dreams becoming a reality
Project to bring cricket to nation traumatised by genocide is on track and already changing lives
It is a challenge even Geoffrey Boycott would not relish. Batting for 26 hours in the nets, facing hundreds of balls, is only for those with real inner drive. For Cathia Uwamahoro, the captain of the Rwandan women’s cricket team, the motivation is personal, which will help her battle fatigue and exhaustion when this morning she begins her attempt to break the world record for the longest net session by a woman.
Uwamahoro is one of thousands of young Rwandans turning to cricket, the fastest growing sport in what until recently was a French-speaking country, and is bringing help to a nation still recovering form the scars of civil war and genocide two decades ago that left almost a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.
“My mum told me that my dad was killed during the 1994 genocide against Tutsi when I was only six months old, so I don’t have his physical image in my mind,” says Uwamahoro on the phone from Kigali. “I have not seen his face since I was a baby. Lots of my friends are playing cricket and whenever I am playing I am not feeling alone and I am not thinking about [the genocide] so much. It is helping me and others a lot.”
There were millions of victims, those killed and those like Uwamahoro who lost close relatives and were displaced by the war. Spend time in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and you see a green, pretty African city that is on the rise. But the number of United Nations cars, NGO workers from the United States and Europe tell the story of a country that still has a long way to go.
A year ago I listened to the personal stories of members of the Rwandan team. How fathers, brothers, uncles and whole families had been wiped out. How some survivors are struggling with the psychological scars of what they witnessed. Memories of the past are everywhere, particularly for the cricketers. The only cricket ground in Rwanda is on the site of one of the biggest massacres. It has a concrete pitch, and a rutted outfield where, until not that long ago, bone fragments were still being found.
A few miles away I stood in a field, no more than scrub really, that was full of bushes, rubbish and criss-crossed by dirt tracks. I was told this was the land that would be turned into Rwanda’s first international cricket ground. It would provide a grass wicket for the first time in Rwanda, a community hub offering HIV support and educational programmes. Driving the project is the Rwandan Cricket Stadium Foundation and 12 months on that scruffy field is now landscaped and you can see the unmistakable outline of a cricket ground. The square has been laid, work is advanced on the grass banked terracing and a festival of cricket to mark the opening is scheduled on Oct 28. Rwanda’s worst drought for decades has been overcome to seed the square. More than £1 million has been raised, some pledged by readers after last year’s article, and the grand opening will be one of the biggest sporting events held in Rwanda. Michael Vaughan, Brian Lara, Makhaya Ntini and England women’s captain Heather Knight are signed up to play, along with teams from the UK and the Rwanda national side, both men’s and women’s. Yorkshire Tea has signed a two-year sponsorship deal along with Surrey County Cricket Club. A further £180,000 is needed to complete phase two of the project, the building of the pavilion, which Uwamahoro is hoping to raise some money for with her net. But perhaps the most exciting aspect of this project is its growth over the past year to elements beyond the boundaries of the cricket ground. RCSF will rebrand to Cricket Builds Hope and has agreed a deal with the United Nations Refugee Agency to deliver sports programmes and to construct sports facilities in Rwandan refugee camps and the target groups are adolescent girls, refugees aged between 12 and 25 years and people with or in risk of HIV. Partnered by Women Win, a charity empowering adolescent girls through sport, the project will use ambassadors to coach cricket in the camps.
There are 165,000 refugees in Rwanda, mainly in camps on the border with Burundi. Eric Dusingizimana, the captain of the Rwanda national team and general manager of the stadium project, has already led trips to the refugee camps as the project takes its next step. “When we played cricket there we combined it with HIV awareness,” says Dusingizimana “It is about more than sport. It is giving hope to some of the most desperate people in the world. None of them had seen cricket before. The enthusiasm and response was overwhelming.”
Uwamahoro is a symbol of the next stage of the work. She took up cricket after seeing male school friends play the game. Now aged 23, she plays for the Rwanda women’s team. The Rwanda men’s team play in Division Four of the African league and progress is slow without a grass pitch to play on. But the women’s team are improving fast. When I watched nets, it was clear there was talent, and the hope is Uwamahoro’s world record will attract headlines in her own country and promote the sport further. Last year Dusingizimana made the news in Rwanda for breaking the record for the longest net by a man, 51 hours, and the sport’s profile was raised as a result.
“From the women’s perspective it is great to see how the game has grown but also the girls see it as a way to show men they can look after themselves and be sporting role models which is why, when Cathia breaks the world record, we hope women’s cricket will get the recognition it deserves,” said Alby Shale, the RCSF project director.
“We will always be loyal to Rwanda but cricket as a sport has values that can help people everywhere. Our ambition with this partnership with the UN is to use that to coach cricket all over the world – not just the game and its values but promoting issues that are a concern in specific regions and using it as a vehicle for change. Our focus for the foreseeable future will be on empowering women, gender equality and raising awareness of gender-based violence.”