Cricket Across Continents

LWC 4th Former, Lottie is disappointed that the Kinyarwanda language doesn’t feature on Duolingo. 

 

The national language of Rwanda isn’t one of more than 30 taught on the app and Lottie is a keen user.

 

“The language is the one thing I’m a bit concerned about,” she explains, speaking before she set off on a ten-day trip to the East African country. “I’m not very good at speaking Kinyarwandan.”

 

It’s debatable if spoken word will prove to be much of a barrier for 15-year-old Lottie, as she will almost certainly be communicating (most of the time) in the universal language of cricket.

 

She is one of 35 volunteers spending the February half-term coaching and supporting communities in Rwanda. It’s all part of a scheme set up by the Indatwa Cricket Foundation, alongside the Hampshire Cricket Board and Cricket Without Boundaries. The project was partly the brainchild of Emma Cowdrill, Women and Girls’ Development Officer at the Hampshire Cricket Board.

 

“My daughter went to Rwanda as a volunteer with Cricket Without Boundaries in her gap year,” Emma explains. “She forged strong relationships with the team out there. She played and coached in Hampshire and together, we started supporting a girls’ cricket team (Hampshire Indatwa). The first trip we made out there was in 2023 and was about strengthening the partnership between our Rwandan team and the women and girls here in Hampshire.”

 

Since then, the scheme has gone from strength to strength and this February will see LWC’s Lottie and her 34 fellow volunteers engaging with a varied itinerary. Activities include teaching English, supporting period health and first aid lessons, erecting cricket nets, painting the local school, coaching, playing matches and working with a women’s refuge.

   

“I’m hoping for some new experiences,” Lottie reveals. “I think I’ll learn quite a lot in a way which will make me view the world differently.”

 

Lottie has been playing cricket since she was seven. “I think it was my brother who got me into it,” she smiles. “He went to Odiham Cricket Club every Friday and I would really want to join in. The following year, when I was old enough, I started playing. When I first started, there were hardly any girls playing, but that changed as I got older”. Lottie is now one of nine female students at LWC to be called up by county sides. “I’d say cricket is probably my favourite sport,” she continues. “I play for the Hampshire Under 15 girls.”

 

Long Sutton will seem a world away from Rwanda, once the volunteers are settled. “The majority of the families there don’t have running water,” Emma Cowdrill continues. “Although they have ambitions to work as doctors, teachers, cricketers, many of the girls are expected to leave school early and work to support their families.”

 

Despite the cultural differences, there will be some familiarity for Lottie. She’s likely to spot the occasional piece of LWC sports kit whilst she’s in Rwanda. “We asked people last year, if they had any of the old-style second-hand kit that they wanted to donate,” she explains. “We then drove it to the Utilita Bowl and it filled the training pavilion pitch with the clothes collected by other schools. It was cool to see pictures of them wearing it in Rwanda. It felt as though we were really helping.”

 

This time, Lottie has taken a suitcase full of cricket whites and general playing kit donated by others, alongside some of her own clothes that she’ll be passing on. In terms of what she can expect from her time in Rwanda, Emma Cowdrill offers some insight. “There were so many highlights from the last trip, it’s almost impossible to choose one,” she says. “Winning a dance-off against the Rwandan girls, the food, the new friendships formed. Many of our team are still regularly in touch with their friends out there, sharing a love of cricket.”

 

No in-depth knowledge of Kinyarwandan required.