Annual Reports

Please click below to see our annual reports: 

Cricket Builds Hope Annual Report 2018

History of CBH

Cricket Builds Hope started life as Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation (RCSF) which was founded in 2011 to build the country's first grass wicket cricket ground.

RCSF was the brainchild of Christopher Shale, a British businessman who regularly volunteered in Rwanda and had the idea to build a proper home for cricket in the country. He died in 2011 aged 56 before he had the chance to realise his vision. His family and friends set up the charity in his memory. 

GAHANGA CRICKET STADIUM

'The Lord’s of East Africa'

Gahanga Cricket Stadium (GCS) opened in October 2017 and has been dubbed the 'Lord's of East Africa'. The not-for-profit ground consists of an ICC international standard wicket with pavilion and bar, as well as community facilities. It has won and been nominated for several prestigious architecture and engineering awards. 

The three vaults, designed to mimic the trajectory of a bouncing ball as well as Rwanda's rolling hills, were constructed out of 66,000 tiles made primarily from local earth excavated on site. The tiles were each handmade, predominantly using local labour sourced through Rwandan Government-led social protection programme, the Vision Umurenge Project, aimed at the two poorest categories of the population. 

CBH plays a role in the ongoing maintenance, operation and sustainability of the GCS, with our project director acting as chair of a joint UK/Rwandan NGO that overseas the running of the ground. The GCS continues to act as a base for CBH activities in Kigali. It has also hosted free HIV testing by the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, cricket open days to attract new players and spectators, and even a wedding. 

Our Patrons

JONATHAN AGNEW MBE

BBC Cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, better known as ‘Aggers’, is the voice of cricket on the radio having joined the BBC Test Match Special team in 1991. Formerly a first class cricketer for Leicestershire, and capped for England Test and One Day teams, Aggers was a founding patron of the charity when it was launched in 2011.

brian lara

West Indian cricketer Brian Lara is one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He still holds numerous records, including highest individual score in a Test match (400 not out) and highest individual score in a first class match (501 not out). He visited Rwanda in 2009 and was a founding patron of the charity when it set up in 2011.

HEATHER KNIGHT OBE

World Cup winning England captain Heather Knight is an all-rounder who made her international debut in 2010. She became captain in 2016 and lifted the Women’s World Cup at Lord’s a year later. Heather has visited Rwanda a number of times to coach cricket and became a patron of the charity in 2014.

Our Team

Rutuku Richard

CBH Project director

Rutuku is the Project Director of Cricket Builds Hope. As well as managing all aspects of the charity, he is also the chair of a joint UK and Rwandan NGO responsible for the Gahanga Cricket Stadium. Rutuku has a wealth of experience from the public, private and aid sectors in Rwanda, most recently at the Rwanda Standards Board.

mary maina

programme manager

Mary is the Programme Manager of Cricket Builds Hope and is also the captain of the Rwanda women’s cricket team. After graduating from the National University of Rwanda, Mary worked in cricket administration for the Rwanda Cricket Association. She now heads up Cricket Builds Hope’s cricket for change programme delivery.

Our Trustees

richard nicoll, chairman

Richard became the chair of trustees in 2014. He is a retired lawyer who is heavily involved with promoting cricket participation and development in London through North Middlesex Cricket Club's Senior and Junior sections and through his role on the Committee of the Middlesex County Cricket League. 

alby shale  

Alby co-founded the charity in 2011 in memory of his father Christopher, who first came up with the idea of supporting cricket in Rwanda. Alby was project director from 2015-17, during the construction phase of the Gahanga Cricket Stadium. Once the stadium was complete, Alby stepped down as project director to become a trustee.

Kevin Sinfield

Kevin is a brand and marketing specialist. He previously headed up brand marketing at Taylors of Harrogate, the iconic makers of Yorkshire Tea. 

Alan Sendorek 

Alan works for QPR FC on their new stadium and training ground projects, having previously worked as a Special Adviser to the Prime Minister David Cameron in 10 Downing Street. He is chair of the communications sub-committee.

Howard Cornwell 

Howard works in Supervision for the Financial Conduct Authority, having worked in the industry for 25 years. Howard led a Coutts Bank team to the inaugural CBH Tournament in 2017 and joined the charity as a trustee shortly after. 

Amy Holmes

Amy heads up operations and client services for a London-based advisory firm advising technology entrepreneurs and investors. She previously worked for ten years for Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne on a number of strategic international projects. Amy is the chair of the fundraising subcommittee.

Privacy Notice

At Cricket Builds Hope (CBH) we take data protection very seriously and CBH trustees want to give an assurance to our supporters that we respect their rights to privacy and take the greatest care in the use of their data.

At CBH we have one designated person who is responsible for holding personal data and this data is all password-protected. In fact we only collect data, which in practice is restricted to name and contact addresses, for the purposes of communicating with our supporters by e-mail with our newsletters or other information about our activities. We never give this data to other organisations.

Our supporters can contact us on rutuku@cricketbuildshope.org if they wish their contact details to be removed from our database (although this would then make it difficult for us to continue to communicate with them) or if they have any questions regarding the protection or use of their data.