Of Jackson Nunda and KCCA’s licence to thrill

Once upon a time there was a stylish KCCA player who after injuring his knee had to contend with a place on the fringes for a year. The Kasasiro Boys continued to put an arm around his shoulders as he underwent a rehabilitation process that was a mishmash of dark and sunny days.
When fitness was finally proven, the player opted to don the No.8 jersey. No, we are not talking about Jackson Mayanja here.
The name is Nunda. Jackson Nunda. He is no 007, but sure has a licence to kill as Onduparaka got to learn this past week.
Nunda scored a peach of a goal in a lopsided win over the Arua-based outfit at the StarTimes Stadium. The lanky attacking midfielder had barely been on the synthetic pitch for a minute when he nonchalantly took Patrick Kaddu’s headed pass. The touch - an almost dismissive flick – left Saddam Norman in the midfielder’s wake. Another deft touch evaded an agricultural tackle from the Onduparaka left back.
At this point, the instinct would have been to thunder the ball past the advancing net-minder, Nicholas Ssebwato. Instead, Nunda sold a couple of audacious feigns that left Ssebwato on his fours in a hot blush of embarrassment. It was in all honesty a very Jackson Mayanja thing to do!

Plausible picture
The goal was greeted with roaring tributes from fans and a torrent of ecstatic reviews in the press. More than anything, the goal provided a plausible picture about Nunda the player. He likes keeping adversaries guessing as to his intentions on the pitch. As for the plaudits from both fans and media, the midfielder has dealt with a hefty share of them before. The grandest of them all came back in March of 2016 when Nigerian legendary player Nwankwo Kanu was left caught in a shiver of excitement. Kanu’s momentary sense of elation came against the back of a scintillating performance from the leggy player in the StarTimes Cup final that pitted KCCA against SC Villa.
Nunda set up the winner in that match with a lung-bursting run midway through the second half.

Cultured left foot
Sporting a No.30 jersey back then, Nunda was in his first season with KCCA, having previously been on the books of Kamwokya United in the lower reaches of Ugandan football.
Blessed with a cultured left foot, Nunda’s neatness in possession is always a beauty to behold.
But because there are not many players of his ilk in the country, the game always finds itself grappling with a quintessentially Ugandan problem - no creativity.
When injury - as it always does - kept him out of KCCA’s Match Day squad for the league match against Maroons, the Ugandan champions were evidently flat.
Muzamir Mutyaba, who sparkled in a midfield trident with Sadam Juma and Nunda during a Caf Champions League match against FUS Rabat, looked so toothless on that day.
It moved some into concluding, perhaps a little hyperbolically, that Nunda’s flashes of brilliance not only make him look good, but also his partners in crime. Whatever the case, the overwhelming evidence available speaks to Nunda’s special-ness.
One can only hope that he has better luck with injuries than Mayanja did. If he does not Mike Mutebi will be hoping that Allan ‘Dancing Rasta’ Kateregga, a transfer deadline day signing steps up to the plate.

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Shaban: Old habits die hard?

There has always been a general consensus that Muhammad Shaban should be held to higher standards of behaviour. The underlying disdain for the striker’s actions is genuine given the frequency of his misdeeds.
Last season, Shaban had to be forced to abandon a vain, but no less disturbing, attempt to stop a photojournalist from getting a close-up shot of the striker after KCCA had wiped the floor with Onduparaka. For all Onduparaka’s posturing back then, it was evident that disciplinary problems, and not an injury, had occasioned Shaban’s removal from the Arua-based outfit’s Match Day squad.
When he menacingly hurled a bottle at the tabloid photojournalist, and thankfully missed, Shaban publicly showed a dark side he struggles to subdue. He had done exceptionally well to get a handle on his dark emotions of recent.
But as hours ticked down towards transfer deadline day, all the good work was swiftly undone when the 20-something strong-armed Onduparaka into triggering a move from Arua to Lugogo.
He did not stop at that, but also moved to stall his unveiling by KCCA in a bid to coax better employment terms out of his new employers.
Whether the striker thought strong-arming tactics would yield a swift victory is unclear. If he did, as many seem to think, he soon found out how mistaken he was when KCCA manager Mike Mutebi made it abundantly clear that the marquee signing should expect nothing but tough love.
Mutebi’s commendable frankness in agreeing to the blatant fact that Shaban has an ego problem is a good starting point. The KCCA manager’s track record as the ultimate disciplinarian in Ugandan football might have been stained by his inability to deal with the excesses of Brian Majwega and Robert Ssentongo, but expect him to pull no punches.
The harsh reality, though, is that old habits die hard. KCCA may well have to come to terms with Shaban’s history.
Eventually, the club may find that the striker is a toxic addition to its ranks. A flawed genius may once in a while pop out of the twenty-something’s trademark mercurial temperament, but KCCA could by and large find that the damage done is too big to undo.

What we know now...

We know that Uganda’s national senior women cricket team pulled a rabbit out of a hat by winning the International Cricket Council (ICC) Africa Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifying Series on September 16 in Winhdoek, Namibia.
We know that the team had its back against the wall right from the outset when it went to Namibia without its head coach. Frank Otieno was not cleared to make the trip to Windhoek after his passport was deemed to have insufficient pages.
We know that instead of retreating into a shell, Uganda authored a stunning David versus Goliath story by beating odds-on favourites, Zimbabwe to the title.
The Lady Cricket Cranes will now face Bangladesh, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and Netherlands in the World T20 Global Qualifier.