Early risers heading for the pool and gym witnessed some of the Nigeria team up early celebrating their qualification for the 2025 ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Malaysia (we don’t think they had been partying all night..?!).
The final at Gahanga Cricket Stadium that the CWB team attended was an absolute cracker, and was heading Zimbabwe’s way after a superb display with the ball, restricting Nigeria to just 77. Having got off to a flyer Zimbabwe were on 19/1 after 2 ½ overs when lightning struck, literally, just 9 balls short of the match counting. An electric storm came seemingly out of nowhere, which if you have seen yesterday’s vlog, you’ll have seen how much rain came down. Unfortunately for Zimbabwe, but happily for Nigeria due to scoring more points in the group stage, this meant that Nigeria qualified. A bitter pill to swallow for Zimbabwe, but to be fair to Nigeria their run to the final included four wins on the trot (three wins in the group stage including a famous one-wicket victory off the last ball of the innings against Zimbabwe, and a semi-final victory over Rwanda).
With all that excitement still swirling around we had a dramatic gear change this morning as we made our way to the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
The team were intrigued, feeling pensive, expecting the unexpected, with a sense that it was going to be harrowing but conscientiously looking forward to the educational aspect and learning more. Tissues were at hand in preparation. I shalln’t delve into the details, but to understand Rwanda and the Rwandans, getting your heads around their recent history is essential. It was a sobering experience, sensitively put together, but obviously very moving, harrowing and thought provoking.
Back to cricket and we had our first coaching session this afternoon at a local secondary school. As a newbie, I was a little apprehensive, but I’ve coached loads of kids before, so how difficult can it be? I had a great team around me, so I knew it would be great, and I wasn’t wrong. OK, so after the ‘Hello’ they didn’t understand a word I said, but after a quick demo we got them hitting balls. In no time they were laughing and wanting to show us how good they were. They loved it. I heard after that they loved Andy & Ali’s dancing too!
We stopped off for dinner at a local place you might call ‘rustic’ and ‘off the beaten track’. Albeit the food arrived 4 hours later but it was a really excellent meal with a variety of grilled meats, rice, and chips!
I love reading the blog and watching those lovely children enjoying the games so enthusiastically. Such fun!