RWANDA CRICKET Stadium Foundation (RCSF) is committed to building a permanent cricket home for Rwanda. West Indian cricket great Brian Lara has said.

Lara said in an exclusive interview with spectator.co.uk that they want to ensure that cricket brings hope to the East African country by providing education and direction in the lives of thousands of Rwandans.

Lara said that though 20 years ago he had a golden summer after scoring 375 against England in Antigua, a Test record that stood for nine years, and two months later posted 501 against Durham, in his mind, he was very aware that in another part of the world, a great tragedy was unfolding.

"Every evening I turned on the TV, there were images of the genocide in Rwanda, and the contrast with my own feelings of euphoria haunted me,” said the former captain of the West Indies.

He added: "It wasn’t until 2009 that I actually visited Rwanda, but when I did I knew I had to help in some way, and hearing the story of a young cricketer called Audifax Byiringiro helped me start to realise what I should do.”

In April 1994, as he was gearing up for his golden summer, Byiringiro was a six-month-old baby in Rwanda. Byiringiro and his family-his mother, father and three siblings — sought refuge from the genocide which claimed one million Tutsis.

Eight years later, by some strange turn of fate, that same field became Rwanda’s first cricket pitch.

Many Rwandans had lived in exile in nearby countries like Kenya and Uganda, where cricket was played as a result of a British colonial past. 

When the exiles returned to their homeland following the end of the genocide, they brought the game back with them and a Rwanda Cricket Association was formed.

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