Eric Dusingizimana (born 21 March 1987) is a Rwandan cricketer and civil engineer who also captained the Rwanda national cricket team.[1] He is also a Guinness World Record holder in cricket which he set in 2016 for a social cause.[2] He was well known for his marathon batting effort in 2016 where he batted for 51 hours non-stop in order to set a Guinness World Record.[3][4] He decided to bat for such long time in order to raise funds for the construction of Gahanga International Cricket Stadium.[5]
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1987-03-21) 21 March 1987 (age 35) |
| Batting | Right-handed |
| International information | |
| National side |
|
| T20I debut (cap 3) | 18 August 2021 v Ghana |
| Last T20I | 19 October 2021 v Seychelles |
Source: Cricinfo, 19 October 2021 | |
He was born in a family of six siblings. He witnessed the 1994 Rwandan genocide as a six-year-old boy. He along with his family members managed to survive from the genocide which killed more than 600,000 people in Rwanda.[6] He began playing cricket at the age of 18 in 2006 when he was studying in the high school. He idolised MS Dhoni and AB de Villiers during his young age when he started playing the sport of cricket.[6] He pursued interest in the sport of cricket due to the close interrelationship cricket had with the subject combination which he selected for his studies.[7]
He pursued his higher studies at his university in the field of civil engineering. He also graduated in architecture technology. He was selected to the national team in 2008 for the 2008 ICC World Cricket League Africa Region Division Three tournament. He was appointed as the captain of the national cricket team in 2011. He also attended the meetings of Rwanda selection committee since being appointed as the captain of the team.[6]
In May 2016, he embarked on a unique mission to support the Rwanda Cricket Association in order to build the first cricket stadium in Rwanda. Eric took it as his dream project with a vision of establishing Rwanda's first ever cricket ground. He batted for about 51 hours continuously for more than two days which also attracted huge crowd attention and national attention.[8][9] His attempt was later recognised by the Guinness World Record officials as the world record for the longest individual net session.[10] He began his attempt on 11 May 2016 and was allowed a five-minute break for every hour of his batting session and completed the task on 13 May 2016 at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali.[11] He also faced throwdowns from the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who was on an official visit to Rwanda in order to attend the World Economic Forum on Africa. His wife apparently bowled the last delivery to him.[12] He broke the world record of India's Virag Mare during his marathon efforts.[13] Following his marathon effort, he was hailed as a national hero in Rwanda.[14] Rwanda Stadium Cricket Foundation, a charity organisation was set up to raise funds to construct the Gahanga International Cricket Stadium.[15] In June 2016, he travelled to England, spent a week in London and managed to raise £120,000.[16] He was accompanied by English cricketer Joe Root who joined his fundraising trip across England.[17]
He also approached the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees in order to discuss his interest to launch cricket training programs for refugees in Rwanda.[18]
In August 2021, he was named in the Rwandan squad for the home T20I series against Ghana.[19] He made his T20I debut for Rwanda on 18 August 2021, against Ghana, in what was Rwanda's first official T20I.[20]