Ghana will play Swaziland in the final of the ICC World Cricket League Africa Region Division Three.

Ghana had the easiest match, thrashing Rwanda by eight wickets with more than 39 overs in hand. Rwanda were bowled out for 23 in 11.1 overs, but that represented a recovery after they found themselves 13 for 8. Abdul-Karim Sumaila (4 for 11) and Isaac Aboagye (6 for 9) bowled unchanged throughout, while extras (9) contributed more than any individual batsman. Ghana lost both their openers in easing home.

Swaziland had to work harder, and survived a mini collapse within sight of the finishing line, before overcoming Sierra Leone by four wickets with 20 overs to spare in the battle of the group winners. Sierra Leone managed 116 thanks to an eighth-wicket stand of 50 which bailed them out from 50 for 7. Joseph Wright (5 for 17) was the man who blew away the top order. Swaziland were wobbling on 27 for 3 but Wright (48) and Abdulazis Patel (35*) put on 73 for the fourth wicket, and strikes from Lansana Lamin (4 for 19) came too late.

Lesotho lost to a South African Invitation XI by seven wickets in the fifth-place play-off.

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Rwanda's cricketers have been boosted by two new sponsors ahead of next week’s ICC World Cricket League Division 3 tournament in Johannesburg.

MTN offered Frw1.5m and v added Frw 0.4m to join sponsors which include the ministry of sports and culture, Rwandair Express and Rwanda Development Bank.

A Ugandan side will play two matches against Rwanda – one Twenty20 and one 50-over contest – this week. Srinath Vardhineni, Rwanda’s captain, said that the team were looking forward to a good performance. "How well we perform against the Ugandans will have a huge bearing on how we shall play in South Africa,” he said.

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

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Rwanda's cricket is coming along leaps and bounds, which is unusual for a country which not so long ago was a French colony where no English was spoken. But now, reports Scotland's Sunday Herald, the national championship has five clubs, while women's and junior teams are set to head to Nairobi for the East African championships.

Jonathan Clayton provides a fascinating piece in today’s Times on cricket in Rwanda and how important the sport has been in their joining the Commonwealth. Despite Rwanda’s French connection, they applied to join in December 2006 and Britain has donated £46m a year. Clayton tells us that Tony Blair, on hearing of Rwanda’s proposed membership, said: “Well, they do play cricket don’t they?”

“I think you can say we have batted our way into the Commonwealth,” said Charles Haba, president of the Rwanda Cricket Association, who has persuaded six schools to start playing and has gained affiliate status with the International Cricket Board.

The new-found enthusiasm for cricket chimes with Mr Kagame’s desire that Rwanda, a former Belgian colony that became a close ally of France at independence, should adopt English as the language of choice. Language is an emotive issue because of its association with the genocide. Those responsible for the killings of some one million moderate Hutus and Tutsis were largely French speakers.

Mr Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front rebel movement, which ended the genocide and now forms the bulk of the Government, was primarily English-speaking. It largely consisted of Tutsi refugees, whose parents had fled previous Hutu-led pogroms in the 1950s and 60s and settled in neighbouring English-speaking countries, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

Many of the Tutsi “boys” who grew up in exile learnt to play cricket. When they finally returned home, they brought the game – and the English language – with them.The game is now helping to overcome some of the divisions left by the genocide. The country’s five teams contain Hutus, Tutsis and several Rwandan Asians.

“Good batting, good batting,” comes the cry from the corrugated-iron roof pavilion at Kicukiro. “Tank you bowler, tank you bowler,” yells Bob Bashir, 15, enthusiastically clapping gloved hands as a lanky bowler races in and pitches the next ball wide.

Rwanda will take part in the East Africa regional Under-15 Championship which will be held in Nairobi from December 8.

Tom Tikolo, Cricket Kenya's CEO who is also the Africa Cricket Association tournament director, said Rwanda will join Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in a competition that will be used to pick two teams - women’s and Under-15 boys’ - to represent the region in South Africa next year.

Tikolo, however, said Rwanda will not have a women’s squad like the other three countries.

AllAfrica.com has a revealing article on Rwandan cricket and the problems they are facing. They may not have sufficient equipment, butt their ambitions remain undimmed:

Under the school program, the Association wants to introduce cricket in at least one new school every year; make available some sets of equipment to every school in the program every year; encourage schools to provide playing fields for cricket; conduct coaching clinics in all schools involved every year by using both local and foreign coaches; to provide overseas training in coaching for a school master or senior player every year so that local expertise to help develop the game; and encourage inter-school visits.

If the French had any remaining doubts that Rwanda, the tiny country in the heart of Central Africa, was a lost colonial cause they must have been banished by the sight of the heavy home-made rollers - oil barrels filled with concrete - smoothing the cricket pitch of the Kicukiro Oval just outside the capital Kigali.

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