Cathia Uwamahoro is the vice-captain and opening batter for the women side, Charity Cricket Club. She lost her father in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi when she was just six months old.

Over a decade later, the 22-year-old  has become an outstanding female cricketer for both club and country.

Saturday Sport recently caught up with the fast rising star and she narrated her journey from a genocide survivor to a leading female cricket player in Rwanda.

Background

Born on August 5, 1993 in Gisozi sector, Nyarugenge district, Kigali city to Corneille Rudahinyuka (RIP) and Thacienne Umulisa, Uwamahoro is the only child in her family, and currently lives with her mother in Gisozi.

"My mum told me that my dad was killed during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi when I was only six months old, so I don’t have his physical image in my mind,” Uwamahoro said.

She attended Kivugiza primary school in Nyamirambo sector for five years before joining Gasave primary school in Gisozi sector where she completed her primary education.

Uwamahoro joined l’École des Sciences Appliqués de Gikondo (ESA Gikondo) where she studied her ordinary level and later she headed to IPR Nyandungu for advanced level and studied Computer Science.

She is currently juggling sports and studies at the Adventist University of Central Africa where she is a third year student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Networking.

"Apart from being a sportswoman, I always wanted to specialise in Information and Technology, so I decided to pursue a career in networking,” she disclosed.

Early days

Despite being born alone and having to be brought up by a single mother, Uwamohoro describes her childhood life as "honest and clean.”

"Honestly I enjoyed my childhood, because I was given anything I needed and my mother was, and is still so supportive of me, she means everything to me,” she told Saturday Sport in an exclusive interview.

Surprisingly, Uwamahoro says, during her primary school, she was a fan of volleyball and football, and when she joined secondary school, she also started playing basketball. At this time, she recalls, she had never heard of sport called cricket.

Uwamahoro recalls that in 2008 while in senior two, she was on her way home from school when she saw a group of boys in Gikondo playing cricket, a game she had only briefly watched on television.

"As a sportswoman, I felt interested to go and watch with my eyes how actually the game is played,” she explains.

Ironically, one of the boys that were playing at that improved cricket playing field; is national team and world recorder holder, Eric Dusingizimana.

She noted that Dusingizimana was the first person who spotted her and introduced her  to the game. " I somehow fell in love with it, so when we went into the third term holidays, I started training with them.”

Since there were no girls’ clubs by then, the Rwanda Cricket Association established a club called ‘Kigali Combine’ based in Eto Kicukiro, that would bring together all girls from different schools around Kigali and were coached by Dusingizimana.

Uwamahoro was among the club’s pioneer players, and it was not long before she was called to join the first national U-19 team that went on to compete in several ICC Africa U-19 Women Championships.

Playing career

In 2008, she was part of the national team that took part in the ICC Africa Women’s T20 tournament that was held in Nairobi, and it was after the tournament that she realized she had the potential, and so decided to the take the game more seriously.

"By then, cricket in Rwanda was still at a low level and we performed poorly but I was very happy to represent my country, it was a great feeling and since that tournament, I was convinced that cricket was the sport to focus on.”

The following year (2009), Uwamahoro also featured for the U-19 national team in the ICC Africa U-19 Women Championship in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania and again in 2011, which was the last time she featured in the U-19 team.

At the national team level, she has also featured in three Genocide memorial tournaments since 2014 when it was first staged. The first edition  was won by Uganda with Kenya winning the 2015 edition while Uganda again defeated hosts Rwanda by 39 runs to win the 2016 edition early this month.

Club level

In 2012, Rwanda Cricket Association formed women clubs and distributed the available players among them.

These clubs included; Charity, White Clouds, Queens of Victory and Kigali Angels.

Uwamahoro was taken to Charity CC where she has won a total of nine titles with the club as the vice-captain and 13 personal awards.

Charity CC’s nine titles since 2013 include; UAE Exchange (2013), V.R. Naidu T20, UAE Exchange, Blue Belly and Computer Point (2014), RCA T10, V.R. Naidu T20, UAE Exchange and Computer Point (2015) and this year’s V.R. Naidu T20.

Her personal achievements include; VR Naidu T20 player of the match awards five times, 2015 RCA expatriate most sixes, best batter and best fielder, RCA T10 MVP.

Best and worst moments

"My best moment was in April 2016 when Kampala based club (KICC) toured Kigali and after seeing me play requested asked me to travel to Kampala to and play with them every weekend. Now, every weekend I travel to Kampala and it has improved my game.”

My worst moment was in 2012, I was done with senior six and went for a solidarity camp, then the U-19 team went to Tanzania and I was denied to go with the team, I was very disappointed.”

Future plans

"My dream is that one day, I will lead the national women cricket team to the ICC Division One, I want to work hard for my team and probably in three years, we shall be in division one.”

Appreciation

"My sincere appreciation goes to Eric (Dusingizimana) because he is the one who introduced me to the game and even taught me how to handle the bat, and I hope never to disappoint him. Also my mum, she has been so supportive and always encourages me to keep working hard.”

What others say about her

The national cricket team head coach Davis Turinawe says, "She is a promising player and if she continues to get more exposure, she will definitely be a good player.”

Dusingizimana says of her that; "She is that kind of player with a vision and self-motivated, I hope in the near future, she will be one of the best batters in the region.”

Last month, Rwanda national cricket team captain Eric Dusingizimana become an international celebrity after entering into the Guinness World Record when he batted nonstop for 51 hours in the nets.

Cricket was first introduced in Rwanda in 2000. Rwanda became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2003 – the third tier of the international game – now and plays in the African Division Two against the likes of Sierra Leone and Mozambique.

The sport is playing a lead role in the healing process after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. The country’s only cricket ground, Kicukiro oval, is on the site of some of the worst atrocities that engulfed the country 22 years ago.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw