Tracing the path that led UCA house to burn fast

 If one loves drama, then cricket is the current place to be. The upper echelons of the gentleman’s game are in the spotlight.

Less than a year into his second term of office, Michael Nuwagaba submitted a one-month notice of resignation from his role as Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) chairman.

“I do hereby wish to tender my resignation from the role of the chairman of the board of Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) for career and personal reasons,” Nuwagaba wrote to the board and trustees in an email, seen by this paper.

Hat-trick of resignations

“To enable a smooth transition, I propose staying in this capacity for the next 30 days which is reasonable time to enable a smooth transition to a caretaker set up.

“My heartfelt appreciation to the confidence exuded in me by our votes, Trustees, cricket fraternity and all other organs within the cricket ecosystem,” he further wrote.

The UCA secretariat has had further resignations from CEO Alan Mugume as well as accountant Rita Kibirige.

The trio’s exit from UCA is rather odd almost after a month after the board disagreed on not renewing South African Laurence Mahatlane’s contract as the senior national men’s team coach.

Mahatlane has since been served a notice that his contract would not be renewed after October 31 even though the Cricket Cranes have to play the ICC Twenty20 Regional World Cup Qualifiers from November 20 - December 1 in Namibia.

No sweet tooth

Regardless, Mahatlane has since mastered an 11-1 scorecard in 12 matches thereby Uganda retaining the East African T20 Cup trophy in Kigali, Rwanda at the start of this month.

This week, Mahatlane cut cake in front of his players and even got a big hug from right-arm fast bowler Bilal Hassun to celebrate his 47th birthday on Sunday.

“Thank you team, it's been an amazing journey that I will never forget,” Mahatlane wrote on one of his WhatsApp status updates. However, not all is well. Not all pieces of the cake are sweet.

UCA’s hierarchy appears to be in a low-key yet a very self-destruction mode. This paper understands Nuwagaba and Nile club representative Alvin Bagaya disagreed in a board meeting having Mahatlane stay.

Mahatlane milk pouring

And bar Charles Waiswa whose vote came last, the rest of the board had already voted Mahatlane out. General secretary Jackson Kavuma had pressed both Mahatlane and Mugume on the former’s scorecard based on deliverables in his contract.

“Nuwagaba just saw an email about Mahatlane’s matter which he had not authorized,” a top source, who preferred anonymity for fear of reprisal, told this paper early this week.

Nuwagaba, who heads agent banking at Centenary Bank, has since opted to end his term of office, at least by October 16.

He will have spent just 219 days in charge, making it the shortest term of office as UCA chairman in nearly two decades. Nuwagaba served as chairman for a full two-year term from 2021.

Kavuma explained that the resultant resignations are rather individual decisions. “Most of these are personal choices. The CEO had personal reasons that made him move on,” he said.

“These changes have nothing to do with the coach’s departure,” UCA’s mouthpiece Denis Musali said.

No politics? Personal reasons

“(For the) accountant, (it) was purely a better offer in the UK and it’s unfortunate it happened at a time when other resignations were happening. Chairman also cited career and other personal reasons, but also all I can say is grit is strength of character in moments of uncertainty,” Kavuma noted.

In the thick of the storm, Kavuma has not thrown in the towel. Why so, I asked him? “Because if I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of me,” he replied.

The source further states that Mugume, despite having no strong background in cricket, “he did not agree with sacking the coach less than a month into the tournament. He felt like he was a CEO with the role of an office administrator.”

And on Kibirige who came in December: “within a month into her job, she sought offers elsewhere because she had no control of her office in a toxic environment.”

Batball showed exit

For some more fuel to the fire, Daily Monitor has seen emails exchanged between Kavuma and UCA Trustee Steven Lumonya with the rest of board eight days apart in copy terminating an MOU between UCA and Plum Sports, who are the owners of Batball Uganda product.

Batball, whose Chief Operations Officer Martin Ondeko is the former UCA CEO until Mugume came in at the start of July 2022, has been staging talent searching and building tournaments across the country since joining UCA in August, 2021.

“The board agreed to terminate the MOU we have with Plum Sports, not Batball. Batball is just a product of Plum Sports,” Kavuma stated, with a reason: “Breach of Clause 15 which does not allow any assignment of the rights under the agreement in favour of any person, other than those permitted under the terms of the MOU.”

But, the anonymous source states that Nuwagaba was surprised to see the email of the termination of the MOU without his input. And about Plum, there have been murmurs that there could have financial loopholes in the UCA system but Kavuma says otherwise.

“There is no financial mismanagement in these resignations and it would be absolutely total disrespect to the people moving on after serving the game and we allege. They have all moved on voluntarily and for personal reasons.”

Kavuma further insists that none of the resignations as well as Mahatlane’s departure has an impact on Uganda’s preparations for Namibia as well as hosting the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Africa Qualifier Division One in December.

“There is no challenge whatsoever to the preparation as systems are already in place,” Kavuma added.

The fire is still burning within UCA and the fire brigade team has not been alerted yet.

UCA EXECUTIVE BOARD 2023-2025

Chairman: Michael Nuwagaba (Wanderers)

Secretary: Jackson Kavuma (ACC)

Women’s Representative: Ritah Tinka (Pioneer)

OTHER BOARD MEMBERS

Fred Lutaaya (Tornado)

Jeremy Kibukamusoke (Tornado Bees)

Nehal Bibodi (Premier)

Ketan Shukla (KICC)

Alvin Bagaya (Nile)

Charles Waiswa (JACC)

UCA Trustees: Steven Lumonya, Parminder Garcha, Enock Barumba 

CAST OF UCA CHAIRMEN

2021- October 2023: Michael Nuwagaba

2017-2021: Bashir Ansasiira

2012-2017: Richard Mwami

2008-2012: Dr. Kato Sebbaale

2007: William Kibuukamusoke