Cricket East

Coaching cricket for nearly two decades at times can feel like people do not appreciate what you provide: with your time, expertise and dedication.

An email arrived in the inbox from Brad Matthews, (Cricket East). It was to do some charity work with Cricket without boundaries, (CWB). I read through it and thought what a great experience this would be. After much reading I decided to inquire about the project. Step 1, was the interview process and finding out if I was suitable and requirements. This left me with many questions: what would my family think about leaving for a week? How would I raise all this money needed? Would I get some time off work?

I received an email informing me, that I had been successfully accepted for the tour, now it was decision time, did I have the courage? After another reminder email, I finally decided that it was time, time to make a bold decision and go for it. Family and friends help me raise the money. (Who I am eternally grateful for their generosity and positive words of praise).

Flight out of Heathrow Airport, I met up with the team I was flying. We were going to be in a bubble for a week in Kenya. Not thinking of the dynamics: would we get along, would we work well together, the energy I received from these people was that we were a team: Team Kenya 2023.
Flight from London to Kigali (Rwanda) was smooth. I met many different people on the plane and making new friends that were just passengers. The transit flight from Kigali to Nairobi (Kenya) was delayed for three hours due to a technical fault, This meant that we would miss the festival on our arrival.

First stop the elephant sanctuary. We heard of the stories of the different elephant and their circumstances and watched how each individual elephant had a different personality. Despite all their distinct stories, they were bounded together by their circumstances. I message for the team to take away, we were bounded together to deliver Cricket with educating about social and health reform.

It was off to our first coaching session. A local CWB ambassador, has weekly sessions with the local children. The children didn’t have much but they were excited to see us there. Their beaming smile and glowing faces to play cricket. The session went smoothly with a lot of high fives and beard touching.

Over the course of the next three days in Muranga, the team would coach three or four different schools a day, with over 300 children per session. We would have five stations running different skills, each station having a minimum of 50 children and at times go up to 80 children per station.

Language barriers was a problem at time, so sign language was needed and I had to learn some Swahili to help with instructing the children what was needed at our station. The final day was a Cricket festival children form the different school we coached at would have an inter-schools competition. The one thing that struck a chord was on the bus journey to the festival we saw children running with their teacher towards the festivals, some children ran over 5km to get there. The festival was a great spectacle, the children representing their school meant a lot for them, the spirit of cricket was high, opposition players showing their opposition how to hold the bat properly, cricket being the winner. Once the festival was over, it was time to refuel and a 6 hour journey to Nakuru due to traffic it took 8 hours.

In Nakuru, Thursday was a coaching filled day with four schools visited. Each school having approximately 300 children. The sessions ran smoothly, it was intense with children rotating different sessions. This happened at every school on the day. The last school Flamingo school we coached some experienced cricketers with a spot of singing of Bob Marley’s classic, One Love.

The Final day of coaching was delivering to three different school with the last school with a combination of two schools. The joy on the children’s faces being coached by people of different cultures. The reception was amazing and it shall forever be ingrained in my memory. Finally, we went to Love for All orphanage, the visit left me with mixed emotions, happiness that we helped and sadness for what the children have gone through.

Cricket really does transcend boundaries, race, beliefs and gender. Cricket is a means for good, a means to educate, a means to unite and a means to share and celebrate.

Let cricket be the winner!

Coming soon....Ally Darlow Cricket East Hotshots Administrator and Coach visits Rwanda!