The progress that the Kwibuka Women T20 tournament continues to show in every edition is an indication of how much Rwanda continues to contribute to the development of cricket among women, according to Patricia Kambarami, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Africa Region Development Manager. Kambarami was in Kigali last week to witness the eighth edition of the memorial tournament which Tanzania won for the second time after beating Kenya by 44 runs in the final at Gahanga Cricket stadium. The tournament, which is organised in remembrance of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, continues to attract more countries with Germany and Brazil the latest to enter the competition. “I am overwhelmed by not only how the tournament was organised but also the fact that there were eight teams participating not just from Africa but from Germany and Brazil. It added flavour and competitiveness to the tournament,” she said. “On behalf of the ICC, I thank everyone here for helping organise such a wonderful tournament which is getting bigger every year,” she added. Reflecting on the tournament’s progress over the past, Kambarami said the tournament had been doing well with the ICC’s development strategy of women cricket. “When you look at last year’s edition and how the tournament has been going on this year, there have been amazing players. Look at Tanzania, they were not here last year but they are great, look at Kenya…they may have lost the final but they were so good and new players are coming through,” she said. “ICC has a strategy to grow the women’s game and I am happy to see that we have tournaments such as this to help us with that strategy to grow the game on the continent and Africa is really doing very well in that area,” she added.
