Interesting Facts: The Rwanda Cricket Stadium

Rwanda Cricket Stadium, officially known as The Gahanga International Cricket Stadium, is a cricket ground in Kigali, Rwanda, located on a 4.5-hectare plot on the outskirts of Kigali, Rwanda’s capital and former scene of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

This 10,000-capacity stadium has a height of 124 metres and a width of 137 metres, with a modern grass pitch of ‘Bermuda Grass’, which is commonly used in modern cricket stadiums.

History

In August 2011, The Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation was established as a charity by a group of cricket enthusiasts from the UK and Rwanda in collaboration with the Marylebone Cricket Club Foundation, a non-profit foundation devoted to the construction and management of Rwanda’s first dedicated International Cricket Ground.

This foundation raised more than £1.25 million in six years to fund the new Stadium’s construction. The charity’s supporters raised funds through various activities such as fundraising dinners, charity bike rides, marathons, and world record cricket net sessions.

The ground was completed in March 2017 and officially inaugurated in October 2017 by H.E. Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda. During the week preceding the opening ceremony, teams from Kenya, Uganda, and the United Kingdom competed in a T20 event. The ground also hosted a Celebrity T20 match on the first weekend, with teams captained by former Ashes-winning England Captain Michael Vaughan and South African batting legend Herschelle Gibbs.

Achievements

In 2018, the ground was selected to host the matches in the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Africa Qualifier Eastern Sub-Region group.
The Stadium also hosted the 2019 Kwibuka Women’s T20 Tournament, a women’s cricket tournament, in remembrance of the victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
This Stadium has won and been nominated for several prestigious architectures and engineering awards. The three vaults, designed to mimic the trajectory of a bouncing ball and Rwanda’s rolling hills, were constructed out of 66,000 tiles made primarily from local earth excavated on site.

It doesn’t take a cricket lover to enjoy this stadium. The unique architecture and exquisite beauty that the Stadium provides with its curved buildings inspired by Rwanda’s hills would inspire you to enjoy and get addicted to the game of Cricket.

Before the 1994 genocide, Cricket was barely played in Rwanda. Now there are 7,000 players across the country, and the sport plays a major role in the healing process, as Rwandans unite with a love of the game.

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