Kayondo bought first bat at 14, still awaits Dhoni’s reply

KAMPALA. Watching Naome Kayondo and her elder brother, Hamu, take in each other’s smiles at the Lugogo Cricket Oval; the sun gently setting behind them, you see a relationship cut beyond biology.
Hamu, who turns out for the Wanderers men’s outfit, had also come for personal training while Naome just wanted to do 21 kms around the oval and it is a wrap.
But after seeing Hamu, the 24-year-old thought; why not? “I thought he could help me with some throw-downs and bowling,” she said, clad in a yellow Lady Cricket Cranes top and black shorts.
Top order batsman, Hamu, is not necessarily Naome’s inspiration yet the bond at the oval is indisputable. “Apart from being my brother, we have a strong sporting relationship which became more apparent at campus.
“I joined the national team early; in my S.1. So somehow I had taken being in the national team for granted but he gave me a different perspective.
She adds: “He was working hard to make it to the (men’s) national team and he would tell me how much effort it took. We discuss and analyse our games together. I joined Wanderers (women team) because of him.”
Hamu is as affectionate towards his baby sister. “She inspires me; what she has achieved… joining the national team at such a young age. She also works hard and always wants to accomplish.”
The Dhoni charm
Starting out as a wicket keeper, Naome’s game has gradually diversified. Not only does she keep wickets, she picks them as well with her medium pacers and hacks balls all over the park with the ease akin to a butcher’s machete skittling through a bony cow – just like her idol Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Okay, that’s overstating it. But yes, MS Dhoni is special to her. “Ha ha,” she chuckles, legs folded crisscross with her bottom finding peace with the Lugogo greenery under the tenderly setting sun, when asked about her cricket idols.
“Well, locally it is Benjamin Musoke. Internationally, it is MS Dhoni,” she says, laughter slowly transforming into blushes.
“I look up to him (Dhoni). I like everything he does. Please let this be off record,” Naome continues pouring out her undying affection for the Indian wicket keeper and captain before yielding to our assurance that there’s no harm in having this on record. She gives us an all-clear.
“One time (over a year ago) I tried to get through to him (Dhoni). I inboxed him on Facebook hoping beyond hope that he would respond. But after a long wait without a reply, I allowed. I have now allowed (that he will never reply). But maybe one day.
“And when I told Hamu, he laughed to near death. He was like: ‘Dhoni is a global star. Do you know how many people are dying to hear from him (more laughs)?’”
We join Naome in hoping for some sort of correspondence from Dhoni; maybe after he’s done with the on-going ICC Cricket World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, the country she supports after Uganda.
Why cricket?
What is certain, though, is her sport of calling. “The moment I joined the national team in my senior one I knew cricket was the one. You don’t just join the national team in S.1.”
She played throughout school and university, the under 18s tournaments and finally to Wanderers, where she won two 50 overs (now 40 overs) league titles and claimed best batter three times along the way.
Naome’s love for a bat especially cannot be underestimated. She so loved the equipment that she bought her first willow as a 14-year-old in S.3!
“It (piece of timber) cost me Shs90,000,” she narrates, “I saved my own Shs60k and Aunt Jalia topped up the Shs30k. I also bought a sun hat at around Shs15k.
“I loved my bat so much but King’s College Budo boys broke it during their Schools Cricket Week a year later. The headmaster instructed the sports tutor to buy me another one but it was never the same.”

Professional career
A Land Management and Valuation Degree holder from Dar es Salaam University via an exchange program with Makerere, Naome juggles her professional job at the East African Consulting Surveyors and Valuers with caressing the small leather ball. Just how does she do it?
“It’s a culture right from school” she says, “I balanced my time between books and cricket at Budo, so it’s not a problem now.
“But I’m also fortunate to have bosses who understand my cricket side. It’s an 8am to 5pm job and after that I have 5.30 to about 7pm for my cricket. And when I have an international engagement, I am allowed to take my leave.”

The special one
At 24, six years after the age of adult consent, an assumption would be that Naome has kissed a few frogs, or better still found that special one in her life.
“No,” she says, between laughter and thoughts, “I don’t have someone special in that regard yet. But I trust God to one day have that special one. I’m single and waiting for that special one.”
Naome believes women’s cricket has stagnated and would do with improved investing from authorities, but it will take something special to stop her spirited journey to life’s dreams.

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