Rwanda ready for global stage as they aspire to grow into a cricketing nation

The Gisele Ishimwe-led side will play their first U19 World Cup game against Pakistan on Sunday

CHENNAI: Stephen Musaale, Rwanda Cricket Association (RCA) president, explains the work that has gone behind the scenes for years to get the U19 women's team, who will be making their debut the T20 World Cup on Sunday, where they are now in a simple way.

"When you plant a tree, it's not like you are making pasta. First, you dig a pit, plant it, water it, and wait as it takes time to see anything happen," Musaale told The New Indian Express.

Systemic growth doesn't happen in a single day or even a year, not in any country. Even more so when you are a nation that is trying to reconstruct everything from the scratch having been through a mass genocide. It has been almost 29 years since millions of members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group were killed by armed Hutu militias.

While the horrors of 1994 still remain fresh in the memory, Rwanda, as a country, have come a long way since, especially on the cricketing front. "You will be amazed to see what we have done in the last 20 odd years and how much Kigali has developed. It is about setting a process and trusting it," said Musaale.

While the men's team was first sent to the ICC Development Program in Africa's first Affiliate tournament back in 2004 and has consistently grown since, the women's team has taken it a notch higher in the past few years. The RCA started the Kwibuka T20 Tournament nine years ago in a pursuit to rally around the countries neighbouring them to visit and play cricket against them.

The tournament — conducted in the memory of the 1994 Genocide victims — has grown from strength to strength with the 2022 edition featuring as many as eight teams. They have built two stadiums — Gahanga Cricket Stadium in Kigali being the one where the Kwibuka tournament happens — and have a third in process, including floodlight facilities and more. In the last two-three years, the RCA’s investment into the sport has come close to 2 million USD.

It has not just gone into the infrastructure. In 2021, they brought on Leonard Nhamburo from Zimbabwe as the head coach of the women's team. "We sat down, discussed the plans to develop, employ more coaches and put them in the region to increase the pool of players, come up with age-group squads, from U14 till U19, both male and female. Slowly, it picked up. Then, we picked the squads, had specific skill camps, technical and mental, every month," says Nhamburo, who coached the U19 team to glory in the qualifiers.

And to keep the players closer to the game and assist them in every way possible, they selected 14 male and female players each for the Facilitation Programme, which provides them with basic financial assistance every month. It was not necessarily contracts but a small sum to help the players to look after their basic needs — some of them live 40kms away from the city and have to travel every day for practice — and review it after six months.

"It was our responsibility to make sure we put them in a position to succeed. It is supposed to ease the activities around point A to point B, training, tuition, travel, equipment, look after their families, etc," said Julius Mbaraga, the RCA secretary general.

The work that went behind the scenes slowly started translating into results. And when the moment came in the U19 Africa qualifiers, captain Gisele Ishimwe and all-rounder Henriette Ishimwe stepped up to ensure their ticket to South Africa as the latter hit the winning runs against Tanzania in the final.

Welcoming the #champions in style. #RwandaToTheWorldCup pic.twitter.com/GkXMWKe69q

— Rwanda Cricket Association (@RwandaCricket) September 14, 2022

Nhamburo remembers one particular moment vividly during the qualifiers in Botswana. Before the final, the team was watching the men's Asia Cup match where Sri Lanka beat Pakistan to lift the trophy and was welcomed with a bus parade when they returned home. When the players watched it with awe, the coach told them that it did not matter where they came from as long as they did the right things on the field to replicate something like that. Little did they know they would be experiencing something similar soon enough.

When the squad returned home after qualifying for the World Cup, the entire team was welcomed with a bus parade through several towns where the people of Rwanda had gathered to celebrate their heroes through the journey. "I have never seen something like that happen in our country. It was like living a dream," recalled Gisele.

As the U19 World Cup got underway on Saturday, Rwanda U19 team has already made it clear that they are not just there to compete. They have beaten Ireland in the warm-ups and will take on Pakistan in the opening game on Sunday.

Musaale, once again, puts into context what this means to the country. "Every cricketer wants to play in the Indian Premier League. That is what they see. Everybody wants to be like AB de Villiers or Lasith Malinga. Now, you are being introduced to the world stage because of the World Cup stars. It means the current and future players have a role model in Rwanda to see and grow into. And we hope this helps Rwanda grow into a cricketing nation."