With our flight to Kigali taking off 6hrs late and making an unexpected stop in Nairobi, our first day in Kigali had a slow start. Three of us were returning to kigali after many year and two were debutants. But for all of us the contrast to Uganda was stark. The noise, litter, chaos and traffic was replaced with the quiet, spotless and calm streets of Kigali.
As the women’s national team, over half of whom were introduced to cricket by CWB, were training nearby, we popped in to say hello. It was a privilege to introduce ourselves and an even bigger privilege to be invited by the coach to deliver a session of our choosing later on in the week.
Our first session in Kigali was at a school that Rwanda Cricket were taking cricket to for the first time. This was under the purview of ‘tall eric’ who is a CWB ambassador and a Rwanda cricket development officer. He was part of our first project in Rwanda back in 2007 and epitomizes the CWB philosophy. Having been trained as a coach back in 2007, he is now a real local legend, inspiring new children into cricket and changing lives through it.
Faced with around 50 strapping 18-22 year olds, we embarked on some fun games aiming to inspire a love of the game. This quickly escalated into what must surely be the most competitive game of rapid fire cricket ever played, one of which required a ‘super hit’ to determine a winner after much controversy and dispute.
The inevitable afternoon thunderstorm halted the session and resulting us sheltering in the school hall as lunch was being cleared up and traditional dance practice was taking place. The beat of the drum, the beautiful dancing and the hammering of the rain (and the rather porous building) were mesmerizing. But as ever, rain didn’t stop CWB as we instigated some games bouncing tennis balls off dining tables that resulted in the students teaching themselves to bowl overarm across the tables and inventing new table tennis style games. The ability to adapt and find a way to have fun and learn, with limited resources, is wonderous to be part of.
The inspiration didn’t stop there either. We then proceeded to talk tall Eric’s community hub in Ndera. This is a poor community on the outskirts of Kigali where Eric has established an ‘academy’. Eric’s definition of an academy is to have nearly 200 kids involved in multiple sessions every week from 5-6pm. Whist the sessions finish in darkness with the sun setting, they can’t start any earlier as the afternoon school session doesn’t finish until 5 a, half the local kids attend school in the morning and half in the afternoon due to limited resources.
Eric visits the homes of every single student who joins his academy so he can understand how they are living and what support they need. The enthusiasm our arrival generated told us all we needed to know about how Eric is regarded locally. Not only does Eric inspire children to love cricket, he also develops talent through his academy. Despite not having any hardball facilities, many of the Rwandan U19 girls team who beat West Indies and Zimbabwe at the ICC U19 World Cup earlier this year remain part of his academy and joined us for the session. We were also joined by Samuel, another CWB graduate, who has been trained by our very own Lee and supported by Eric in his coaching journey and a number of other coaches that Eric has nurtured.
With David, Ed and Steve assigned to create some fun and noise with the younger kids, myself working on bowling with some of the older players and Holly mentoring some of their international players a brilliant time, and noisy, was had by all. But I think what most inspired us all was the fact that from a single spark in 2007 of training Eric as a coach, not only was he now changing the lives of so many children across Kigali, but he has also developed, with CWB’s help, a crop of local coaches who can change yet more children’s lives. And the sessions they are delivering carry all the hallmarks of a CWB coaching session. It really felt like the charity has already created a huge legacy, and one that will continue to grow.
I was left with feelings of pride, perspective and privilege.
Andy Hobbs
