Govt, Damani commit support to World Cup bound Baby Cricketers

The under-19 boys’ national cricket team is selling like a hot cake. 

They have hogged the headlines and drawn greater attention to the gentleman’s game after they qualified to the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup finals due next year in West Indies.

After a triumphant tournament in Kigali, Rwanda, the Baby Cricket Cranes were hosted to a luncheon by Dr Sudhir Ruparelia at Speke Apartments on Friday evening.

And that had followed a one-hour trophy parade aboard an open bus from the airport, where they had received a guard of honour from their senior counterparts, the Cricket Cranes, to the Apartments.

They were warmly received by sports minister Hamson Obua, Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) board members, trustees, legends and its partners such as sponsor Aziz Damani. 

“On Wednesday, you gave us the first Independence gift,” said Obua, before discussing funding of the trip to Caribe early next year.

“They (Baby Cricket Cranes) have tied the hands of government to ensure that we support them,” he noted, before a thunderous handclap followed. 

“There are challenges but we are not sitting,” Obua added.

Gifts to players

Moments earlier, Damani, whose junior club Aziz Damani II boasts of seven players in the winning team, gifted each player a new Samsung Galaxy phone as a token.

“This (World Cup) is an excellent opportunity for Uganda cricket to show what they have been doing,” said manufacturing and pharmaceutical investor Damani, flanked by his wife and Siva Koti Reddy.

“We‘ll wait to see what Uganda Cricket Association needs for the boys to be in West Indies then we will come in to help as we have always done,” added the Ugandan-born of Indian descent Damani.

Besides funding tournaments, Damani often supports the Cricket Cranes both logistically and financially.

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