Last year there was some girls cricket being played in Rwanda, they had a national side, but not much was else going on. In the past year, through chatting with Eric on Skype and Facebook, and seeing postings on the Kicukiro Cricket Facebook page, slowly more and more girls cricket was being played. In December 2012 the first girls cricket league was founded in Kigali, as was Eric's own team White Clouds Cricket Club.
Prior to coming out to Rwanda Kev, Carl and I (members of Team Rwanda 2012) learned that the girls league needed kit. I also learned that White Clouds needed a strip to play in. Essex cricket kindly donated their T20 kit. At the training weekend Team Rwanda 2013 picked out some kit from the pile that had been donated to bring over, and at work I spoke to some cricket playing friends who kindly donated bats to bring out for the girls. After some careful packing and sweet talking to the Qatar check-in team, we were able to successfully board the plane with all this kit.
Last Saturday White Clouds played their first fame of the season, playing last year's tournament winners Queens of Victory. In a closely fought game White Clouds beat last year's winner by 7 runs. At the end of the game I caught up with Captain Litha, who was very happy not just because of the win, but also because they had kit to play in and equipment which was theirs to use.
From Litha, Eric and the rest of White Clouds Cricket Club a big thank you to everyone who donated kit.
Jules
Thank you Jules & Carl for sorting out the new kit for the Girls in Rwanda, lets hope it leads to more girls playing cricket and the rapid growth continuing to all parts of the country