The national Cricket Association has pointed at Namibia as Rwanda’s main challengers in the upcoming Kwibuka T20 tournament slated from June 6-12.

Namibia are one of the four African teams that confirmed their participation ahead of the annual memorial cricket tourney, alongside Nigeria, former champions Uganda as well as Botswana.

It will be the Namibians’ very first time participating in the tournament, just like Botswana.

RCA Secretary-General Julius Mbaraga told Times Sport that the national women’s cricket team is undergoing intensive training sessions to be able to prepare each of its upcoming fixtures and tipped Namibia as Rwanda’s biggest challenge at the tournament based on its recent performances on the continental level and their experience in the 2019 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

"Namibia is a very good challenge for Rwanda because they have that experience of playing the world cup in 2019. It’s always a good challenge when you are playing against teams that played in the World Cup because of the experience they bring. Not every team goes to the world cup, you need to be good enough to play such a big tournament,” Mbaraga said.

Namibia will be facing their former head coach Leonard Nhamburo who guided the Southern African side to the 2019 Africa Regional World Cup qualifiers final berth that earned them a ticket to the 2019 ICC Women T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Scotland

Mbaraga is confident that Rwanda will beat the best in the tournament, and has faith in the capabilities of current head coach Nhamburo.

"For Rwanda, Namibia is a challenge we cherish and we are looking forward to taking it under the coach who took Namibia to the World Cup during his tenure,” Mbaraga said.

The tournament will take place in adherence with the guidelines of the government on Covid-19.

The teams start to arrive on June 3 and will be playing at Gahanga Cricket Stadium.

They will all be staying in a bubble at La Palisse Hotel Nyamata, in Bugesera District until the tournament concludes.

Fixtures of the tournament show that Rwanda plays the opening game against Nigeria on June 6 before taking on Botswana two days later.

Their next games will be against three-time winners Uganda on June 9 and Namibia on June 10.

The semi-finals will be played on June 11 while the third-place playoff and the final will take place on June 12.

Held annually since 2014, the tournament is the flagship event of the women’s cricket calendar in Rwanda through which the cricket community contribute to the country’s healing process following the atrocities committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. 

RCA aims to make the tournament serve as a learning curve for the Rwandan side, and plans to welcome stronger teams to take part in the tournament in the years to come.

"Our main goal is to see, in the near future, Kwibuka T20 tourney become a premier women’s Cricket tournament on the African continent. Today, we have four teams coming for the tournament but we want to host at least eight teams on a regular basis in the near future,” Mbaraga said.