Tough selection as coach Tikolo names final 14 for ICC Div III tournament

KAMPALA.

The several parameters set in the scope of sport sometimes leave a feeling that ‘enough’ never exists.

Even when teams are many, there is only one winner at the end of it all. Cricket and football accommodate only 11 players per side for a match yet basketball offers just five slots on court.

One would understand the pain coach Steve Tikolo felt while trimming his side before naming the final 14 that will represent Uganda at the ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division Three showpiece next month.

“It was not easy,” Tikolo stated at a press conference while flanked by Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) CEO Justine Ligyalingi, team manager Andrew Meya and head of selectors Benjamin Musoke at Lugogo yesterday. “This is a journey that started with 31 players in August last year,” Tikolo said. “We invested lots of hours in training, in the gym and trimmed it down to 20 players.

It was therefore a very tough job dropping anyone and selecting the final 14 but we looked at attendance in training, how one trains, discipline, team relations and the performances in the series.”

With the East African nation returning to play competitive cricket for the first time in 20 months since the ICC Africa Twenty20 Championship, Tikolo announced six changes in the squad. First, Tikolo put trust in his ‘old guards’ with Davis Karashani and Charles Waiswa returning from retirement. The pair had hang up their bats after Uganda’s abysmal show at the ICC WCL Division Two tournament held in Namibia in January, 2015. Karashani now regains his captaincy from Brian Masaba in the new-look side that includes that has other returnees Roger Mukasa, Lawrence Ssematimba, Hamu Kayondo and Irfan ‘Afridi’ Sahibzada.

Afridi is poised for an international debut having worked under Johan Rudolph in 2013 but later dropped for the 2014 ICC World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand.

“We were also looking at certain combinations and that is how we settled for these 14. I have the confidence and a very strong feeling that we will do Uganda proud,” Tikolo added. Uganda will seek to build on the momentum for May 21-31 event having whitewashed Kenya 4-0 to win the Easter Series a fortnight ago. But Tikolo’s wielding axe did not save some stand-out faces from that build-up tourney.

Youngster Derrick Bakunzi who put a fine cusp to that Series with a match-winning knock of 49 runs off 72 balls in Game Five but despite that charming spell, there was no place for the U-19 graduate.
Bakunzi is one of the six faces dropped from the Namibia trip as well as Suleman Sharif, Lawrence Ssempijja, Varinder Singh, Ivan Thawithemwira and Abraham Mutyagaba.

Also, revived bowling all-rounder Emmanuel Isaneez who shared 74 runs with Deus Muhumuza in Game Three for the Series’ biggest partnership, is dropped for the reserves alongside Lloyd Paternott, David Wabwire and UK-based Naeem Bardai.

The final selection
Team Uganda
Davis Karashani (captain), Brian Masaba (vice-captain), Arthur Kyobe, Hamu Kayondo, Roger Mukasa, Arnold Otwani, Kamal Shahzad, Frank Nsubuga, Henry Ssenyondo, Charles Waiswa, Deus Muhumuza, Jonathan Ssebanja, Irfan Sahibzada and Lawrence Ssematimba
Reserves
Naeem Bardai, Lloyd Paternott, Emmanuel Isaneez and David Wabwire