Cricket comes to Rwanda as stars attend 'Lords of Africa' debut
The stadium is built on the site of a school where a massacre took place during the 1994 inter-tribal genocide.
Saturday 28 October 2017 00:41, UK
A cricket stadium dubbed the "Lords of Africa" is set to open in one of the unlikeliest locations imaginable.
England T20 player Sam Billings, also at the opening, called the facilities "world class".
Billings is taking part in a charity T20 match at the stadium on Saturday, alongside Vaughan and Trinidadian batting legend Brian Lara.
The stadium has been built with the help of a British charity, the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation (RCSF), the Rwanda Cricket Association (RCA) and President Paul Kagame's government.
The pavilion is designed to look like the path of a bouncing cricket ball, and the rolling hills of Rwanda.
The game is growing fast in Rwanda and RCSF's director, 27-year-old Alby Shale, said the stadium could move the sport into the "fast lane".
Alby's father Christopher - a friend of former UK prime minister David Cameron - set up the charity after wanting to change the image of the school's field, a place where many were massacred during the 1994 genocide.
His son took up the project after his father died in 2011.
"I think my dad would be proud of all of us for what we have achieved," he said.
Britain became involved in Rwanda after the genocide, which left almost a million Tutsis and Hutus dead.
Kicukiro Oval, the main cricket ground in Kigali, now has a hotel and restaurant, a free HIV testing centre and a conference facility.
The number of British tourists going to Rwanda has been rising every year - with more tourists expected to visit after national airline RwandAir announced direct flights from Gatwick to Kigali.