Why Micho was right to give Hamis Kiiza a cold shoulder

DIFFERENT PATHS: Coach Micho deemed South Africa-based striker Kiiza (20) surplus to requirements for the 2017 Afcon tourney. PHOTO BY ISMAIL KEZAALA

What you need to know:

  • UNJUSTIFIABLE PICK. South Africa - based Kiiza has not done enough lately to suggest that he is worthy of a place in the provisional squad. His one-dimensional outlook in attack barely helps matters.

Never boring, often controversial, always quotable, Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic will doubtless be remembered for his courage in telling truth to power.

Shortly after guiding Uganda to its first Africa Cup of Nations finals appearance in nearly four decades, the Cranes coach used his Twitter feed to plead gloomily for clearance of his salary arrears.

The Serbian’s submissions on Twitter opened with such a burst of impassioned energy so much so that they occasioned an infamous barb from his employer.

Moses Magogo, the Fufa president, told NTV Uganda that Micho ‘cannot handle success’. The comment was book-ended by a Twitter storm. Time has since taken the wind out of the sails of that storm.

Yet just when the echo of the storm had become inaudible, quietude became tumult in almost a heartbeat.

The naming of a strong 40-man provisional Cranes team ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals provoked intense debate. Convinced that some of the tantrums were with Hamis ‘Diego’ Kiiza’s blessing, or perhaps at his insistence, Micho wasted on time in venting spleen on his Twitter feed. The journalist vouching for Kiiza was likened to ‘Mickey Mouse’.

Kiiza was not spared with Micho in, some would say, typical, others head-spinning, style calling the South Africa-based striker ‘Goofy’. The Afcon finals, Micho added in a fit of rage, is not “an animated film.” Twitter went into overdrive.

Merits v demerits
The merits (if any) and demerits of the Serbian coach’s [mis]deeds will be widely discussed. Conventional wisdoms holds that Micho should do better to safeguard a reputation he has painstakingly built over the years.

Few have wholeheartedly approved the Cranes coach’s Twitter potshot. Others have chosen to see the funny side of it.
All said, we should not skirt the issue of whether or not Kiiza was not deserving of a place in the provisional squad.

Your columnist believes Micho made the right call.

Kiiza has not done enough lately to suggest that he is worthy of a place in the provisional squad. His one-dimensional outlook in attack barely helps matters.

Rich blend

Micho says he wants to have a rich blend of youth and experience at his disposal. The two Geoffreys — Massa and Sserunkuma — are the experienced strikers he named to his provisional squad. Would you name Kiiza ahead of them?
There has been a clamour for Massa, a hulking presence in Uganda Cranes attack for a decade, to be booted.

Micho says he does not have a fine instinct for such popular feelings. The Serbian believes Massa, scorer of 32 international goals in 78 matches, is not past his sell-by date. Elsewhere, Sserunkuma showed that he still has a big stage temperament when he scored his 15th international goal during the African Nations Championship (Chan) in Rwanda early this year.

The two Geoffreys are expected to join Farouk Miya as Micho’s striking options in Gabon. That leaves a slot that will be taken up by one of the five young strikers named to the provisional team (Derrick Nsibambi, Mohammed Shaban, Yunus Sentamu, Edrisa Lubega and Erisa Ssekisambu). Hamis Kiiza, anyone?

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Mbale Sports Club tries to separate darkness from light

T he stars winked faintly through a pewter sky. Metaphorically speaking, Mbale Sports Club (MSC) has dispensed a great bulk of dark days for golfers in this part of the world, but the last Saturday of November was not to be one of them.

Spikes had been taken off and clubs tucked away after the curtain came down on the club’s first golf tournament in 22 years.

Inside the unprepossessing club permeating with a pungency, golfers who had gotten a measure of their adversaries in the Mbale Golf Open were being feted. One of them was an elder statesman at the club whose haggardness and facial contours belie time-honoured attributes. An eight-handicapper, George Magombe is MSC’s leading light on the links. Well, at least his handicap - the lowest at the club - suggests so.

Magombe is not only - even in the evening of his life - a golfer extraordinaire, but also the club’s Greens Keeper. After playing the first nine holes, your columnist watched the senior citizen recharge his batteries with a bite and drink at a makeshift refreshment point before smashing the ball off the 11th tee.

It appears Magombe has a high pain threshold. His laboured beam contrasted starkly with the winces and grimaces of his playing partners as the group contended with the 600-odd yards of Hole No. 3. The signature hole of MSC’s par-72 course, golfers enjoy the unique experience of teeing towards the picturesque view of Mount Elgon dominating the skyline at No.3.

For many, that is as far as the enjoyment goes with more than three shots being needed to approach the green. Not Magombe. His playing partners - who included Uganda Golf Union president Johnson Omolo - felt a twinge of envy watching him valiantly save par.

Flashes of brilliance
Magombe would later walk past the heavy treads of a tractor that had dug ruts into part of the yawning No.9 fairway and submit a card whose scores were decent enough to win him the Group A accolade on a three-way count back.

MSC, however, knows it cannot keep holding up the wrinkled Magombe as its golfer par excellence. If it does, the ill advised move will only add to the feeling of loss that is almost palpable at the club. Young blood, club captain Paul Okiring acknowledges, his eyes moving feverishly behind his spectacles, has to be unearthed.

The modus operandi that has served Tooro Golf Club well has already been identified as a template worth copying. The door will be opened ajar for students, artisan golfers and caddies. There were legions of caddies during the Mbale Golf Open. All were young (barely in their teens) and walked barefoot.

They are undoubtedly accustomed to grappling with dark days. But as their home club opens a new chapter, the young caddies can be rest assured that they will get the stars in the pewter sky should they miss the moon. Darkness and light has never been slightly uneven.