Uganda cricket officials have work cut out to ensure Nago Express doesn’t run out of steam

Author: Robert Madoi is a sports journalist and analyst. PHOTO/FILE/NMG.

What you need to know:

  • How should this ‘Nago Express’ be insulated from attendant stress and strains?

Cricket Cranes head coach Laurence Mahatlane this past week named Juma Miyagi to the party that is touring Namibia. The senior men’s cricket team is readying itself for the Cricket World Cup Challenge League B set to be belatedly hosted on home soil in June. 

The T20 World Cup Global Qualifier B—due to be staged in July in Zimbabwe – will also be more than an afterthought. Uganda will have gotten three T20 games under its belt by the time the tour of Namibia grounds to a halt on April 15.

Miyagi’s inclusion in a 15-strong squad doesn’t illustrate tectonic forces at work. Not just yet, anyway. The 19-year-old wunderkind has every right to fancy himself as an all-rounder. An out and out express fast bowler, Miyagi clocked north of 135kph whilst helping himself to 13 wickets during the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean early this year. 

Just in case the youngster’s status as a speed sensation had gone unnoticed, his captain, Pascal Murungi, was all too happy to remind everyone with an extraordinary field in one of the matches. It’s not everyday that the first ball of an innings is greeted with every fielder behind the bat! Such is the brute force with which Miyagi rips deliveries down. The horizontal velocity can be unsettling for even the most accomplished of batters.

As earlier mentioned, the tectonic plates in the Cricket Cranes are not yet moving. All-rounders Dinesh Nakrani, 30, and Riazat Ali Shah, 24, will – barring a disaster of epic proportions – still remain at the front of the queue. The way and manner in which Miyagi is eased into the Cricket Cranes setup will nevertheless give us an idea of the competencies of Ugandan cricket officials.

The ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup unearths starlets who are in turn expected to seamlessly transition into senior ranks. Pared to its most elemental dimensions, one is bound to arrive at the conclusion that Ugandan cricket officials have made a fist of various transitions over the years. 

While the odd ‘defection’ of players has allowed a strain of unease to co-reside with tenderness, most transitions have not been gravely challenged. They have as a matter of fact gone without major incidents despite the best attempts of that seemingly destructive intersection of work and personal life (that intersectionality nonetheless claimed talents like Hamza Saleh and David Wabwire to mention but two).

Uganda put up its best performance at an ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup event early this year. It ran Ireland and South Africa close at the group stage before picking up two wins over Papua New Guinea and Scotland in the plate competition. The Baby Cricket Cranes would have even finished higher than 13th had they held their collective nerve in a nail-biter against the UAE. 

Miyagi, along with his captain and Cyrus Kakuru, was pivotal to the telling performances in the Caribbean, and not just with ball in hand. The batting carnage he displayed against Ireland, slogging four sixes during a quicksilver knock of 38, illuminated his pinch-hitting abilities.

He will, however, evolve only negligibly in his abilities if officials prove to be vaguely comfortable with handling him. It will for instance be a sheer disaster if it has rarely occurred to officials that Miyagi is bound to suffer stresses and strains associated with speed bowling. How should this ‘Nago Express’ that is bound to keep steaming in be insulated from such attendant stresses and strains?

Surely a past nagging back problem must have made it abundantly clear that Miyagi’s workload has to be meticulously handled to preserve his prime pace-bowling assets. Prized bowling talents like Dennis Tabby and Daniel Ruyange were poorly managed in the past, and this greatly constricted Uganda’s quicks. Once bitten, twice shy? 

Over to you, Uganda Cricket Association.

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Twitter: @robertmadoi