Swetal’s Sanjay Farm to host Cricket Cranes for third straight year

Uganda Cricket Association will be looking to kill more than two birds with one stone after accepting an invite from passionate cricket lover and property developer Swetal Desai to send the national team to Sanjay Farm in Chikhli, South Gujarat - India for the third straight year.

CEO Martin Ondeko disclosed that the trip to India (February 16-26) will help Uganda prepare for the bumper schedule that awaits the team on the international calendar and equip the younger players with better skills against quality opposition.

“We have many tournaments coming up and there is no better place to prepare for them than in India,” said Ondeko.

“We also want to cement our relationship with our partners in India who have always supported us. And one of our strategies is to create a larger pool of players that will be moulded into core national team players.” Ondeko’s words were justified by the galaxy of Under 23 players – 11 in number- named on the side heading to India.

Uganda are lined up to play in the ranking ACA T20 Cup (March), T20 World Cup Qualifier (June) and World Challenge League B (July 27 – Aug 8) thus far. Swetal, as always, is hopeful Team Uganda can continue to improve. “The Ugandan side is coming to a whole new place at Sanjay Farm,” disclosed the former chairman of Navseri Premier League, a competition where Indian internationals and Pandya brothers; Hardik and Krunal honed their talents.

“The matches will be played at Mohanlal M. Desai Cricket Ground which hosts about 200 matches every year and the players will also get a chance to work on their skills later in the evening at the floodlit Param Veer Cricket Academy.

The teams are also going to be stronger than those they played last year.” Swetal was also a UCA guest in Muscat, Oman last December when Uganda won the ICC Challenge League B opening round.