Meet Dusingizimana, Rwanda’s cricket ace

HE has been the national cricket team captain since 2011. But it has been over 10 years of passion and perseverance for the 27-year-old Eric Dusingizimana to make it to the helm of cricket. As a teenager, Dusingizimana used to watch Indians and a few Rwandans play cricket at Eto Kicukiro playgrounds way back in 2004. As time went by, he made friends with cricket players who eventually introduced him to the game. Before he knew it, Dusingizimana had fallen in love with cricket. In 2006, he made his first attempt at the game and like they say the rest is history. He has since rose to become one of Rwanda’s best cricket players. He was ushered into the game by the then senior players like Emma Byiringiro and Robert Mugisha (currently based in Germany). Dusingizimana first joined the Right Guards Cricket Club as the 12th man (substitute) but with hard work and perseverance he shortly made it to the starting line-up before becoming the team’s opening batsman. The soft spoken Dusingizimana spent his first season with the Right Guards, the club that groomed him. But after one season at Right Guards he formed Young Tigers Cricket Club together with other youngsters. But the team did not survive its third birth day anniversary as it closed shop in 2009. In early 2010, he formed IPRC Cricket Club and captained the team for two years from 2010 to 2011. At the time, Dusingizimana was a university student at IPRC-Kicukiro. Later, he moved to Impala Titans for a one-year stint before switching to Dugout Cricket Club in 2012. In January this year, Dusingizimana headed back to his debut team, the Right Guards, helping them to finish fifth in this year’s Computer Point T20 Championship. Challengers Cricket Club won this year’s title. National career Dusingizimana has been the opening batsman of the national senior cricket team since 2008 and since his first cap he has never missed a single call-up on the team. He also featured for junior (U19) team for two years between 2009 and 2010. He also featured for the national senior team in 2008 in the Division III/Africa qualifiers held in Johannesburg, South Africa where Rwanda finished fourth out of eight participating countries. Two years later, Rwanda finished third in the 2010 edition held in Malawi. In 2009, the captain featured for the junior team at the Africa Junior Championships held in Maputo, Mozambique, helping the country finish in third position. He again featured for the national team in the same competition staged in Mbabane, Swaziland as Rwanda finished second behind champions Nigeria. Since 2011, Dusingizimana has been the national senior team captain. He captained the team to Division III/ Africa qualifiers title in Seychelles where Rwanda earned promotion to Division II which was hosted in Accra, Ghana. In late 2011, he led the national team in the Division II looking for Division I qualification but unfortunately, they finished bottom out of seven countries and got relegated back in Division II. In 2012, Rwanda finished fourth in Division II/Africa qualifiers while this year, the country managed a third-place finish in the tournament held in Johannesburg with Swaziland clinching the main title. Titles won Dusingizimana has won several titles with different cricket clubs. The notable titles include: two Computer T20 titles with Young Tigers and one with Dugouts in 2013 as well as Zaaffran cricket tourney with Dugouts in 2013. Other major honours were in Sulfo Rwanda cricket tourney, Utexrwa tourney, Caisse social schools’ cricket and Rwanda Cricket Association championship titles with Young Tigers, Hotel Okapi tourney and Blueberry tourney titles with Dugouts among many others. At the individual level, Dusingizimana was named the best batsman of the Caisse Social Schools’ tourney and best batsman of the RCA T20 championship in 2009 as well as best batsman and man of the series of Computer Point T20 championship 2010. Best moment of his career Dusingizimana’s best moment in his career is when he hit a record of 100 runs from sixty balls earlier this year when his team, Right Guards was playing against Indorwa in this year’s computer Point T20 . Who is Dusingizimana? Born to Martin Mushinzimana (RIP) and Beatha Mukagahonga on March 21, 1987 in Kigarama sector, Kicukiro district, Dusingizimana is the sixth born from a family of ten children, seven boys and three girls. His father passed away in 2008. He attended Mburabuturo Primary School before going to Eto Kicukiro for secondary school studies in both Ordinary and Advanced level. He pursued mathematics and physics in A’level which he completed in 2007. He enrolled for university studies at IPRC-Kicukiro and graduated in 2011 with an advanced diploma in civil engineering.