Nhamburo spearheads Rwanda’s cricket revolution

Leonard Nhamburo

FORMER Zimbabwe women's cricket team assistant coach Leonard Nhamburo and Rwanda cricket appear to be a match made in heaven.

Since the Glen View-bred coach arrived in Rwanda, the women's game has grown in leaps and bounds.

In January, the Rwanda Under-19 women's team became the first team from that country to feature in a World Cup after they won the African qualifier last year.

The team, regarded as minnows, had a memorable day as they made it to the Super 6 stage and claimed scalps of seasoned sides West Indies by four wickets and Zimbabwe by 39 runs.

Nhamburo reflected on the World Cup performance as well as his success in Rwanda.

"It was a memorable World Cup for the team and every game that we played there was a massive experience because we were playing teams with a lot of resources, teams with better structures than Rwanda," Nhamburo told The Sports Hub from his Rwanda base.

"It was a good experience playing competitive teams like that and it was also a learning curve for the players. I cannot say we were surprised to be there because we went through the qualifiers where we had to play against eight teams where one team was supposed to qualify and it was us.

"It shows the hard work that we have been putting behind the scenes as a team we expected to be there.

"We just had to make sure we try to match the standard of the performances of the teams that we were going play at the World Cup," he said.

Ironically, while Nhamburo excelled with Rwanda, the Zimbabwe Under-19 women's team was faltering at the tournament losing all their three Group B matches against England, Pakistan and Rwanda.

In a match against England, who emerged as the losing finalists at the tournament, Zimbabwe lost by a massive 174 runs after they were bowled out for just 25 runs chasing a 200 target to win.

Nhamburo opted for modesty when asked about his feelings about beating Zimbabwe, the country that probably made him and taught him most if not all of the things he knows about cricket.

“This was a World Cup and everyone came with a mind to win games and you don’t need to look at who you are playing or where you come from as a coach or what is your background or who groomed you in terms of coaching," he said.

"As coaches we are destined to move and coach in any country and when you get there you try and give your heart to the team you are coaching so I went to the World Cup with Rwanda in my heart. They are my family and playing Zimbabwe being a Zimbabwean didn’t matter to me because Zimbabwe also wanted to beat at the World Cup.

"The same way I felt when we beat the West Indies is the same way I felt when we beat Zimbabwe. I didn’t look at it as a country of my birth because this is sport and in sport you compete against your own brother or sister and whoever wins we just appreciate each other.

"It also showed that Rwanda is improving because we look up to Zimbabwe in cricket and being able to beat them shows that there is something that we are doing right."

Last year, Nhamburo guided the Rwanda senior women's team to a 53 run victory over hosts Nigeria to win Nigeria Cricket Federation Women  T20 Invitational (NCFW T20 I)  tournament.

Nhamburo revealed the secret behind the  success he has achieved in Rwanda which culminated in a fantastic World Cup performance on debut for the age group team.

"In terms of preparations there are a lot of things that went on behind the scenes. We had a lot of developmental programmes that we put in place to make sure that the game is played around all the regions and provinces to try and  build the age group teams," hje said.

"Those are the things that we have done since I have been here and it has been working very well. We have been having games being played at all age group levels. We had our own league. We have got two women’s leagues, Division 1 and Division 2. All of them managed to play about 40 games, two rounds each, that's when we managed to select the squad.

"The goal now is to make sure that we start playing other nations and we need to make sure we keep this team together.  We are also trying to come up with some placement programmes whereby we try to find clubs and teams where they can go play out there so that they can start getting international exposure.

"Another goal is to strengthen our domestic league a little bit more and make sure it attracts players from outside the country that can come and share their experience in Rwanda. These are the things that can help to be more competitive when we play at such a level the next time."

Nhamburo took over the Rwanda women's cricket team in January 2021 after a two-year stint with the Namibia women cricket team between 2019 and 2020.

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