People will remember us for good works – Mwami

What you need to know:

THE BIG INTERVIEW. Outgoing Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) chairman Richard Mwami stood at the helm of the gentleman’s game for five years.
Last Saturday, he declined to exploit a clause in the new constitution that could have seen him stand for another term. SCORE’s Innocent Ndawula and Darren Allan Kyeyune got to speak to the former Cricket Cranes top order batsman on the successes during his term, failures and also got him to advise on what direction the new board led by Bashir ‘Badu’ Ansasira should be taking. Below are the excerpts.

How would you like to be remembered?
There are about four or five things, I would like my outgoing UCA Board to be remembered for. I take pride in the fact that we made that difficult decision to procure 14 acres of land for cricket in Entebbe. This had been a wish for many but had not figured out how to do it. The decision to buy land for the proposed new cricket home involved personal guarantees to secure that loan of $220,000 (Shs500m then & about Shs790m now) to buy that land. I am glad we did.
And as we speak now, that loan is at $38,000 (Shs136m) now valued at Shs1.5b. In my view, I take that decision as a right one and don’t forget the land is just a kilometre away from the Kampala-Entebbe Express Highway.

There is work that needs to be done to fully reclaim some of the land but if we can gather a little bit more financing we can play cricket there before the end of this year. The second one was the need to change the constitution and have every voting member club to have representation on the Board. This move would make it easier for the members to feel part of the decisions we make.
If you look world over, cricket decisions in Australia, South Africa and England, the people who form the board are the states, provinces or counties. Members come together and own the decisions they make. This is exactly what we have done. But like you saw at the Assembly, there is more politics at the club level as Kampala Institute of Cricket Clubs (KICC) proved. Now pity the board that has a club which is divided. Good thing now is that Nile, Premier and Jinja Association of Cricket Clubs (JACC) can have the same representation like Tornado, Tornado Bee and Wanderers.
Thirdly, there was also literally no women’s cricket when I took over. There were just girls gathering together and playing an odd game or two. Today we caused clubs to set up women’s teams and we have put in place a league. We now have two tiers. That is remarkable
Our annual ICC grant has also grown from $320,000 (Shs1.1b) to $750,000 (Shs2.6b) in three years. To achieve such growth has been a concerted effort to achieve on the various score parameters set out by International Cricket Council (ICC). These include development, women’s cricket, the national team (Cricket Cranes) and governance to mention but a few.
True it is important to get the Cricket Cranes to do well but that is not the biggest driver of the grant revenues.
Local sponsorship has grown from Shs100m to now close to Shs400m. A lot of support has come in handy from Pepsi, Jazz Safari and Mehta Group to mention but a few.
We feel proud of these achievements and believe this provides a good platform for the new Board.
Where do you think you did not do well as a UCA Executive Board?
We did not do well with the local competitions. We could have spiced up the events. There are different schools of thoughts like taking our local players away to different leagues to play and gain experience or bring in international experienced players for our local players to learn. The cost was really the issue and therefore failed to make it happen.
The standard of umpiring, too, has to improve. We have some really good umpires but a few others do not match the standards and need improvement. This, the association, must come in to help.
Talk about the Tornado - Tornado Bee matter…
I am conflicted as I am Tornado and once Tornado Bee. But our constitution provides a clear path for conflict resolution. The AGM has supreme powers on cricket matters but on this occasion pronounced itself on an illegality.

What is your take about the just concluded election?
It was great to see that all the member clubs have representation on the Board. Badu, who was my vice chairman, won the tight election because he was most popular. He fought a hard fight too. There will be many anxious to see how he steers the ship going forward.
Is it viable to increase a term of office to four years and have a board grow something into fruition where they have enough time to implement core programs?
That is entirely the decision of the General Assembly. But in my view people need change especially in offices of this nature. A four-year term sounds a long time. Two years is reasonable and if you have served people well, people will vote you back.
The other thing that arose during your reign was facilities. Lugogo is perceived as the home of cricket. What is your overall take on cricket facilities in the country?
Truth be told, we don’t own Lugogo. We are good squatters. The facilities at Lugogo are increasingly under strain. Over 20 clubs take their training at Lugogo and that is a serious challenge. To remedy that, we need to get more facilities; clubs must play a lead in that. However much we renovate the facilities at Lugogo, it does not take long before getting spoilt again.
What would be your biggest regret over the time you have held office?
I always wished for the Cricket Cranes to become permanent members of Division 2. We have oscillated many times between qualification into Division 2 & 3. I hope we can achieve that status sooner than later. We have a chance to do that in the coming ICC World Cricket League Division 3 tournament to be hosted here in Uganda