The senior men’s national cricket team captain Eric Dusingizimana has revealed that, although there is still more work to do, the team has improved a lot.

The skipper was speaking during in an exclusive interview with Times Sport on Wednesday following Rwanda’s 4-1 victory against Zambia in five friendly series over the weekend at Gahanga Cricket Stadium in Kicukiro District.

Dusingizimana, who will captain the national cricket team during the July regional T20 qualifiers for the World Cup against Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, said that beating Zambia was surprising, given that the Southern Africans won their last two meetings, in 2008 and 2012.

"For the first time in a longtime, we played good and entertaining cricket. The wins over Zambia were convincing and the team spirit has never been better,” the world record holder for the longest batting session in nets said.

"Playing against an experienced team like Zambia was a good litmus test to weigh ourselves and up our preparations. It was a massive boost of our morale and confidence ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.”

Asked about what has been the impact of newly appointed head coach Martin Sugi, captain Dusingizimana said: "The coach has changed a lot at the club. He has built confidence in us (players) and how we prepare for big matches.”

The national team has been far from impressive in the past few years, but Dusingizimana underlined that a lot of efforts have been invested in building capacity and skills of bowlers and fielders, before noting that Gahanga Oval has also contributed significantly to the performance improvement. 

As part of ongoing preparations, the team is organising a visit to Uganda next month where they will have warm-up matches with a few teams in the neighbouring country.

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