She Cranes no longer moved by flowers

She Cranes in training. PHOTO/JOHN BATANUDDE 

What you need to know:

This opens a Pandora’s Box about compensation in netball that stretches to so many of the 51 sports disciplines supervised by NCS. While She Cranes are ranked seventh in the world, the side is still largely treated as amateur and there does not seem to be a clear way forward beyond the present.

Three months after the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England each of the national netball team players received Shs2m each.

They had trained for two months before travelling to the UK. For each day of training, players signed for Shs30, 000. This was paid in cash.

Uganda Netball Federation (UNF) president Sarah Babirye Kityo informed us that these were training allowances for the Commonwealth Games.

Players received Shs7m from National Council of Sports (NCS), money that was paid to all the participants at Commonwealth Games from the government.

The She Cranes had unsettled balances in form of  allowances after more than two months training that included residential while preparing for the Commonwealth Games that Babirye says were cleared a fortnight ago when she received money from NCS.

“NCS managed to pay the federation arrears for the Commonwealth Games residential and player allowances. All the players and officials are now sorted and none of them is demanding Commonwealth Games allowances,” Babirye said.

UNF had received Shs86m from NCS in the week ending November 18.

The Shs30, 000 training allowance has remained static for years and was the same amount paid under the previous UNF president Susan Anek Ongom, now a member of the council of NCS.

“When Babirye took over, she promised to raise that allowance to Shs50, 000. This was only verbal and has never been implemented,” a player told us.

This opens a Pandora’s Box about compensation in netball that stretches to so many of the 51 sports disciplines supervised by NCS.

While She Cranes are ranked seventh in the world, the side is still largely treated as amateur and there does not seem to be a clear way forward beyond the present.

Players are aware that they demand money from the federation in form of allowances but none knows the specific amount they demand as they never sign any contract and they always receive as the federation deems.

Now that they are being praised, and even hear of large chunks of money received by different players in other federations, netballers feel that they deserve more from their toiling.

“Many of our seniors are no longer being called for national duty but they have nothing to show after toiling for the national team. We want to make sure that we do not follow in their footsteps,” said another player.

Yes, the She Cranes have played at the last two Commonwealth Games (2018 and 20220 and two World Cups (2015 and 2019). What’s changed?

Players have turned professional as seen in the moves of captain Peace Proscovia, Mary Nuba and Stella Oyella.

For the team not to have a compensation mechanism and code of conduct is a travesty.

It is a cross cutting problem in Ugandan sport with only cricket, football and the Rugby Cranes 7s having these functional documents and systems in regard to national teams.

Players believe that being invited to the She Cranes is ‘a privilege’. It’s one for which they are not expected to demand or expect anything in return.

UNF is keen to remind them to show patriotism and remain disciplined. There is no room to complain.

This doctrine started way back during the former presidents’ regime whereby players and coaches would only receive allowances but without any standard form of pay at the end of any competition or even match allowances.

“We are supposed to be receiving match allowances but we have not received any for the previous three competitions. We even do not know how much we are supposed to get because all this depends on the federation,” a player says.

In the new regime that came into office last year, the national coach Fred Mugerwa was given a two-year contract with a stipulated salary. This is a first. The status of his players remains unchanged.

Not moved by the flowers

Babirye was taken back when players did not enjoy the flowers given by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataha Museveni upon their recent return from New Zealand where they played in the Fast Five Series.

“I’d like to applaud Uganda’s national netball team @ She Cranes for putting up a stellar performance in the Fast Five World Series in New Zealand!” she tweeted

“Your hard work and dedication has surely not gone unnoticed. Well done #Babandana!” she added.

This had various responses full of discontent from some She Cranes players.

“At least we need motivation, we were given only 50k for all we did to make our country's flag go high. We are not happy,” team captain Joan Nampungu tweeted.

“Totally agree, we have volunteered to play without pay for the love of our country but it is not fair as other people in power benefit from our sweat. We are not a charity case, we raise the Ugandan flag high like no other,” Lougborough Lightning Mary Nuba tweeted.

“You are very right Nuba. They are always giving us false promises,” Stella Oyella responded.

The She Cranes players after returning from the Test Series in England were not given any allowances but were constantly being told to give it their all for the good of their country.

But in the current situation where everything is costly and people have responsibilities, who works for free?

This also explains the reason why some of these players decided to go A.W.O.L even without representing the country in England.


While in the United Kingdom, their colleagues from other sports that took part in the Commonwealth Games were invited to the State house and given Shs20m per team.

The She Cranes had no representative hence they did not receive this cash.

During their flag off at the federation offices in Old Kampala, the state sports Minister Peter Ogwang asked players to leave behind their account numbers for their share of the money from State House to be wired to their accounts.

However, to their disappointment, they did not find a coin on their bank accounts, and the federation only dismissed them with Shs50, 000 transport back home.

This is all that sparked off their discontent hence going viral for the first time.

Old promises

The She Cranes team hosted the Africa Netball Championships in Lugogo in 2017 and won the competition unbeaten.

The team retained the trophy still unbeaten in 2018 at the competition held in Zambia. This was also a qualifier for the 2019 World Cup.

This exceptional performance helped the She Cranes improve from ninth to seventh in the world.

The team were invited to State House where President Yoweri Museveni promised to give Shs20m to each player from the two African events.

Until now, the president has not yet delivered. Players from the 2017 and 2018 of which most have ceased playing for the national team have of recent come out to echo their young counterpart’s voices as they also demand their Shs20m promise.

Lilian Ajio, who was by then an assistant captain, explained that her colleagues are living in poor conditions after being dropped from the national team.

“They always talk to me. They want their money so that they can start businesses and lead better lives, now that they no longer have places on the national team,” she said.

Meanwhile, another player Rachael Nanyonga, who was an industrious goal attacker at the time says, save for being praised, they did not receive much during their stay on the She Cranes team.

“If we receive that Shs20m, it will help us in so many ways. We are the ones that built the She Cranes team and made it stable, we deserve to be appreciated not in words but cash,” Nanyonga told Score.

Recently, the She Cranes were slapped with a fine of $5000 (more than Shs18m) after confirming to take part in the Africa Netball Championships in August this year in South Africa but pulled out six days prior to the event.

The team will not be allowed to take part in the World Cup next year before they pay this hefty fine which is also expected to affect the players’ allowances due to the cash strapped federation.