Ssematimba returns to keep Cranes’ wickets

Willow wielders. Henry Osinde, (R) the Ugandan-born head of Canada’s selectors committee takes his team through a training session at Lugogo Oval yesterday. Uganda take on Canada in the opening game of the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament tomorrow. PHOTO BY EDDIE CHICCO

What you need to know:

  • For over a decade, Ssematimba was unchallenged for Uganda’s wicket-keeper role until form and injuries crept in four years ago, giving room to Naeem Bardai, Philemon Mukobe and Arnold Otwani.

KAMPALA.

Some bookmakers and ardent fans know the Cricket Cranes well enough. Many can remove tell their jersey numbers and nicknames with ease.

And a great number can try and guess the probable starting 11 for coach Steve Tikolo’s side.

But one big question has lingered in the corridors ahead of the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament that bowls off at three different venues tomorrow.

Who will wear the gloves for Team Uganda and take on wicket-keeper role? At last, coach Tikolo broke the silence and revealed Lawrence Ssematimba will stand behind the stumps for the six-nation event.

“As it stands now, Lawrence is our number one wicket-keeper,” Tikolo told Daily Monitor in an interview at the weekend. “He has been our number one wicket-keeper for a long time now,”
The dilemma for Uganda’s wicket-keeping role started last month when Ssematimba suffered an inner groin injury, sitting out the 4-0 whitewash of Kenya in the build-up Easter Series.

Arnold Otwani, who had the duties in Uganda’s last competitive international engagement - the ICC Africa Twenty20 in South Africa - had been expected to stand in but he lost his mother on Day Two of the international friendly.

Ssematimba’s sibling Roger Mukasa filled that void as he kept the wickets for the first time in his career in over decade.

Tikolo told this paper that Ssematimba has recovered in time to face opponents in Canada, Oman, Malaysia, Singapore and USA.
“He has undergone treatment and rehabilitation with the assistance of the team physio. Recently, he did a fitness test and was declared fit to play.”

“… But there are days when we might look to go with different tactics to accommodate the combinations that the team requires against a certain opposition. This could be going in with a make-shift wicketkeeper to allow us play an extra bowler or batsman - flexibility in team tactics.” the Kenyan legend added.

For over a decade, Ssematimba was unchallenged for Uganda’s wicket-keeper role until form and injuries crept in four years ago, giving room to Philemon Mukobe, Otwani and Naeem Bardai.
The latter pair, Mukasa and Kamal Shahzad are Tikolo’s other options with the gloves.

UK-based Bardai kept gloves in five of the six games at the previous edition of ICC WCL Division Three in Malaysia.
Ssematimba played the final against Nepal, Uganda lost by 62 runs. It means the 34-year-old will go into a major tournament as the team’s main wicket-keeper for the first time since 2013 ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda.