For a historic first time, Rwanda was part of the ICC World Cup trophy tour this year. The national women cricket team is seen here posing with ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy in February. File.

We are in the Rwanda team bus coming from dinner at the Harare Sports Club, the ladies are in high spirits after picking up a one wicket win over fellow newcomers Mozambique; a real nail-biter which went down to the last over.

It was quite a scrappy affair but as they say, “a win is a win“. Team manager Victoria Gahonzire is leading the celebrations on the bus, interspersed with some jokes about the game, especially at the expense of team coach Joshua Mwanja who was particularly feeling the pressure before the win came.

Joshua Mwanja, a Ugandan national, is as much a Rwandan as any other in the squad having been part of the set-up since 2010. He dropped by our room to console Uganda after a heart breaking loss to Namibia that ultimately ended our hopes for a World Cup. I am sharing a room with Head Coach Michael Ndiko, who is a former teammate of Joshua during their national team days. They were also teammates at Wanderers CC before I joined.

Joshua Mwanja, head coach of the national women cricket team. Net.

While we lick our wounds, the Rwandans are in raptures on the bus, the girls sing songs together with team management, even Rwanda Cricket Association (RCA) General Manager Emmanuel Byiringiro gets sucked into the mood. Together they live in the moment. This is a proud moment for them as a cricketing nation, and a measure of how far the team – and their country – has come.

This is a memorable time for the squad; the first time a Rwandan women’s team has participated in an ICC event, and I chat with Joshua Mwanja – who balances his roles as development manager with coaching the development sides – on how far they have come.

“Part of the criteria for us to take part in this tournament was that we should have a ladies league and currently we have ten clubs competing in two divisions, as well as some schools that are promoting girls’ cricket. This experience has been a learning one for us since it’s the first time we get to compete against a Test playing nation and teams that have been here more than us”

Gahanga Cricket Stadium is among the best cricket facilities in the region. Net.

During the qualifiers for the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, in May, Rwanda was able to pick up two wins out of their four group games. They pushed aside fellow newcomers Mozambique and Nigeria, only falling to Tanzania and hosts Zimbabwe. Joshua tells me that participation in ICC Events was a long time coming.

“We host an annual tournament called the Kwibuka Peace Tournament” where we invite Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and this has definitely helped us prepare our ladies for tournaments like these. We have been hosting the tournament since 2014 and the ladies have been learning from their more skillful neighbours during the Kwibuka. I am certain that is why we looked better prepared than the other new comers,” Joshua opined.

With the path of the Men’s Cricket World Cup seemingly impossible for most Associates, and alongside some other emerging nations, Rwanda has recognised that better opportunity exist for women’s teams to break through to global events, under the current structures.

“Like other Associates we know the pathway to the Women’s World Cup is more direct than that for the men. Our men’s side is not even in the Cricket World Cup Leagues and, therefore, we are hopeful that we can get rewards once we invest in the ladies.”

It’s impossible to talk about Rwanda without reference to what happened in 1994, when the Genocide against the Tutsi claimed over one million people. But, cricket has played – and still does – an important role in healing the society.

“We have a couple of programmes that promote social change through sports. We have a partnership with a local NGO called Edutrust that supports local victims. We also have our own CSR initiative as Rwanda Cricket that actually won us the ‘Spirit of Cricket Award’ from the ICC. Every year we visit villages that accommodate victims of the Genocide, we spend a day with them playing cricket and sharing the positive change the sport can bring in their lives.

“We also collect a lot of items, household and otherwise, that we donate to them. As the slogan of the nation “NEVER AGAIN” goes, we, as cricket, want to be at the forefront of leading this campaign that NEVER AGAIN should our people have to go through what happened 25 years ago.”

A small nation compared to its neighbours, Rwanda is already making strides in not only developing the sport but also in governance of the game. They were awarded the Governance Award at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Annual Awards earlier this year, something Uganda and Kenya, who have governance issues, can learn from. Joshua credits the country’s leadership for this.

“Rwanda has a visionary leader and this has not been lost on the leadership of Rwanda Cricket. Our Ministry of Sports is very interested in what we are doing and this ensures that our leaders are accountable not only to the fraternity but even to the nation as a whole.”

Ambition flows through the veins of cricket in Rwanda. With the support of the charity Cricket Builds Hope, they now have a world class facility in the famous Gahanga Cricket Stadium. This facility now allows the country to host ICC events, which they already have in the men’s ICC T20 World Cup Africa B qualifiers, in July 2018.

Joshua talks about their high performance programme, and how it has to be measured on the quality it produces.

“We are creating hubs in the country and these should be able to produce talent that feeds our U15, U17 and U19 pathways. We genetically have well-built girls and boys and once looked after well we know we can produce some fine talent. Once we have a proper conveyor belt, we can then start dreaming.”

For Joshua, Rwanda is closer to home than his native Uganda, and he speaks the local language comfortably. Using his established networks in Uganda, he occasionally hosts club sides in Rwanda for match practice against his teams.

Rwanda Cricket has taken time to observe what has worked in the past for their African neighbours, adapted programmes for their own conditions, and are now running with them.

Besides, most of the forebearers of cricket in Rwanda went to cricket-playing schools in Uganda, with former president Charles Haba having gone to the famous Busoga College Mwiri, while current president Eddie Mugarura went to Kings College Budo.

Cricket is very alive in Rwanda and the partnership with organisations such as Cricket Builds Hope – that has linkages to Surrey Cricket Club in the UK, and Yorkshire Tea – are all playing a part in helping Rwanda Cricket Association grow the game in the land of a Thousand Hills.

The writer is a former international Ugandan cricketer.

This article was first published on emergingcricket.com