Covid-19: UCA cough up Shs8m to support vulnerable in fraternity

The uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic has left many living cautiously.
And since President Museveni suspended sports activities on March 18, the lockdown situation has hit hard several sportsmen.
In response, Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) early this week announced its support of Shs8m to assist both its male and female national team players alongside the association’s vulnerables.

“We are providing relief during this period as some of our players entirely depend on cricket for their livelihood,” said UCA CEO Martin Ondeko.
This is the second sports federations after local football body Fufa to assist the main stakeholders. Almost a fortnight ago, Fufa offered 10 tonnes of rice estimated at Shs50m to cater for over 2,000 players in the Uganda Premier League, Big League, Women’s Super League and the Women Elite League.
Relatively, UCA’s fraternity is smaller. And their support is mainly for the Cricket Cranes and the Lady Cricket Cranes particularly who had some training sessions for major events cut short by the lockdown last month.

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“Each national team player received about Shs300,000,” said Ondeko about the package catering for 20 male and 10 female players as well as essential staff like groundsmen and an audited list of the ‘vulnerable poor’ who have received food stuffs from UCA.” However, the cricket fraternity has 400 male players and over 150 female players. Isn’t the support too selective? “We did some research,” Ondeko said. “Other players’ allegiances are corporate class and have their allegiances to their clubs which are doing their bit. We are not done yet. We are looking to support others with time as we monitor the situation.”