They were once the killing fields of Kigali, the scene of the mass genocide which cost the lives of a million people in Rwanda in the 1990s.
But now they are being turned into cricket facilities and a Scot is at the heart of the redemption process.
Colin Siller, born and bred in Edinburgh, is currently coaching the Rwanda national team as they prepare for the ICC Africa Twenty20 Division 3 competition in Johannesburg next month. While there are myriad obstacles in the path of this emerging country – it has only one cricket pitch, a few nets, and thousands of street players, who love the game, despite existing on Third World rations –Siller is optimistic that his proteges can maintain their progress and develop into a cricketing force.
"I have been in Africa before but never Rwanda, so this is a learning curve for everybody, but there is a lot of enthusiasm, even if the facilities don't exist at the moment," said Siller, whose peripatetic career has encompassed coaching youngsters such as Neil McCallum and Fraser Watts in his homeland, a 10-year stint in Ireland, where he mentored at the Holywood and Instonian clubs, and subsequent forays to such far-flung outposts of the sport as Canada, Fiji, Austria and Sweden. "I am working with six league sides, all in Twenty20 format, and I will be doing all I can to pass on my experience while I am out here. It is a short-term arrangement, but the Rwandans are keen on cricket and Twenty20 in particular, and I have been impressed with the attitude and the application of the players. They have seen what teams such as Kenya, Namibia and Uganda have achieved, and are determined to keep climbing the ICC ladder."
While Siller brings his technical and motivational skills to bear on the pitch, he has been encouraged by redoubtable characters such as Oli Broom, managing director of the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation, who is working to construct what would be the country's first purpose-built ground, at a cost of £400,000.
"It is amazing what they have managed to do so far, given that there was no cricket there until after 2000 and they started out with an unmown field, the grass was two metres high, and it was on a site where thousands of people had been massacred, during the worst period of the genocide," said Broom, who has recruited the likes of the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Jonathan Agnew, the BBC's cricket correspondent, to assist his fund-raising efforts. "Rwanda's efforts to move forward have been hampered by a lack of facilities, but this is being addressed and the plan is for us to create a ground with a pavilion and accommodation for travelling sides and youngsters who come through the school system. It is a big challenge, but one which is well worth making a reality."
Siller has only been in Rwanda a few weeks, and is still acclimatising to days where the temperatures can reach 33˚C or 34˚C in mid-morning, as the prelude to thunderstorms in the afternoon. But the knowledge accrued from his frequent flyer miles has allowed him to grasp the strengths and weaknesses of cricket in his temporary home.
"We have been working hard for the past three weeks and we are heading to Uganda for a four-day trip at the end of March, prior to me picking the final squad for the tournament in South Africa, and it looks as if there will be plenty of competition for places," added Siller. "Kigali is a bit like Fiji, in terms of the weather and the standard of living; you have the ex-pats and the locals, and there is also a huge American community here, which has led to a boom in property prices. Companies such as Heineken, who have a local brewery and have bought up some top-notch houses, have also arrived. Basically, sport is growing very quickly, there is plenty of interest in football and in T20 cricket – it is the only format played here – and the Rwandans have lots of natural talent.
"The main task is to bring some organisation to their structure and it is also vitally important that youngsters who live outside Kigali have places in which to play, because, at the moment, they don't have these opportunities. It won't happen overnight, but I do get the feeling things are moving in the right direction."
Siller will only be with the RCA brigade until the start of June, and then he will move on to his next assignment, as he pursues a first-class job with a county or even a Test country in the future.
Such an approach has freed him of parochialism and he admits to split loyalties in certain circumstances. "I was the first person to coach [Irish opener] Paul Stirling [now at Middlesex], and I spent a decade over there, so if Paul was facing Dewald Nel, for instance, I'd be rooting for Ireland," said Siller. "But when Scotland play England at rugby or cricket, there's no problem."
For the moment, though, Siller is searching for gold with his have-passport-will-travel philosophy.
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