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Is this what managing expectations should look like in Ugandan sport?
ROBERT MADOI
What you need to know:
It was, to be brutally honest, a bit of an eyesore watching the team in action. Everything about the endeavour (if it can be called that!) from the players was lethargic.
Those that run everything down to the smallest details will have noticed that the phrase 'managing expectations' and anything remotely close to a World Cup have gone hand in glove in recent times. And it is not just the national teams we are talking about here. More on them shortly.
The Mandela National Stadium in Namboole, we are told, has a fighting chance to stage the Cranes' remaining 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers in the event that a few deficits are addressed.
Consequently, we have been told to manage our expectations as the government attempts to find out who has the keys to the buses that have gathered more than dust at the stadium's parking yard.
Forbearance under great provocation is also being asked of us members of the fourth estate as the outlook of the media tribune is rethought. And, oh, those LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights to illuminate the stadium and fire up the stadium’s big scoreboard will also push the limits of our patience.
The lights are on their way, so we should, you have guessed right, manage our expectations.
Oh that beautiful little phrase! Where would we be without it? Clearly, the expression has the ability to thin the fog of rage. It can help gloss over executions that are rarely memorable.
But should it be used in what by all measures is a sweeping manner when our national teams are put under the microscope?
You could argue that the aforementioned question is hardly existential. There is, however, no doubt about its consequential status.
Your columnist found himself deeply considering the question after our senior women’s cricket team was knocked sideways during its quest to qualify for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.
Namboole has taken so long to complete. PHOTO/FRANK BAGUMA
Before the qualifying event started proper in the United Arab Emirates, we had been asked to manage our expectations. Sri Lanka and Scotland are hardly a cakewalk as indeed the former's eventual qualification to the big time showed.
High priests of the sport disabused us of hoping against hope that this time the underdog will cheat fate. And so it was. The Victoria Pearls, as our senior women's cricket is nowadays known, piled one pummelling on the back of another.
It was, to be brutally honest, a bit of an eyesore watching the team in action. Everything about the endeavour (if it can be called that!) from the players was lethargic.
The collective of fielding, on the one hand, and batting, on the other hand, fought upheavals in such a manner that it seemed like the wooden spoon was up for grabs. Should this really be the outcome of managing expectations, your columnist thought to himself.
Of course not; yet here we are. Invariably, your columnist asks: is the phrase ‘managing expectations’ a euphemism for putting up with, even accepting, mediocrity? It is a damning indictment that an answer in the affirmative is inevitable.
We cannot talk about managing expectations when we are making heavy weather of doing the basics.
Running between the wickets, using your feet whilst batting, and maintaining the correct stance when fielding. All these are basics that the Victoria Pearls made look akin to scaling Mount Everest.
But they are not alone. Clearly. I mean clearing the parking yard in Namboole is proving to be such a Herculean task. We should not whine, though. Let us manage our expectations.
Next Saturday, I will use the senior men’s cricket team—the Cricket Cranes—to show how, in my humble assessment, managing expectations should look like.
The team is currently touring Sri Lanka as it braces itself to make a bow at the forthcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup. So that is, perhaps, something to look out for. You might want to manage your expectations, though, especially if cricket is not your cup of tea. See what I did there!
