Local cricket officials can learn a lesson or two from their counterparts in netball

It is not every year that Uganda fields a senior team at a World Cup tournament, and yet here we are.

Last year, the She Cranes raised the possibility, even if only slightly, that they would take the sixteenth staging of the Netball World Cup by storm. In a sense, they did; not just by comfortably outperforming teams a few rungs below them, but also going toe-to-toe with South Africa—an African netball powerhouse.

Eventually, the historic win over South Africa in their backyard during the fifth placement match capped a hugely successful World Cup tournament for the She Cranes. Uganda swelled with pride back then and continues to delight in the team’s capabilities now as Africa's No1. 

For a country whose bet is a generalised feeling of better luck next year, the unbelievable speed with which the She Cranes keep advancing offers a moment of clarity.

This year Ugandans will cheer yet another senior team at a World Cup tournament—the Cricket Cranes. But, since the team's hand precisely articulates the marriage of chance and choice, few will hedge their bets on a She Cranes-esque tale being scripted. And rightly so. 

Unlike the She Cranes, who have since 2015 effortlessly made the World Cup cut, the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be the first such senior tournament Uganda's cricket team is figuring at. There are no guarantees that it will not be an outlier. Indeed, punters have little incentive to throw in their lot with Uganda making the grade yet again in 2026.

That, dear reader, is precisely where the problem is. Make no mistake, the Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) deserves its flowers for the work that has been invested into getting Uganda where it currently is.

Beating Test-playing Zimbabwe to a World Cup ticket is no small beer. Ditto having Alpesh Ramjani in the frame for the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2023 accolade. 

There is also every indication that the Cricket Cranes will fight until the bitter end during this year’s World Cup tournament. They have been drawn alongside co-hosts West Indies, New Zealand, Afghanistan, and Papua New Guinea in Group C. 

No-one, even the staunchest of Cricket Cranes fans, expects them to make a splash by advancing to the Super 8, the propensity of T20 cricket to be pregnant with upset wins notwithstanding.

This is not because Uganda is saddled with a long list of vexing problems. No. Far from it. There is in fact a buzz about the unit that has already entered a bootcamp in Jinja, with hopefuls all too eager to make an impression during the early audition. 

The collective hope of the Ugandan cricketing fraternity—that is not known to be wet behind the ears—is that their national team will spare no effort to be competitive at the big time. For a team whose whole approach to the game has a Caribbean flavour to it, the June 8 group match against West Indies is particularly eagerly anticipated. 

But more than asking the Cricket Cranes to punch above their weight by pulling a rabbit out of the hat in the aforesaid contest, and indeed others against New Zealand and Afghanistan, this column hopes for something else.

Something, perhaps, more fundamental—that everything remotely possible will be done to make qualifying for future World Cup tournaments a habit. 

As the She Cranes have indicated, teams tend to get a hang of it when they consistently feature in World Cup matches. To pull this off, maintaining a top two ranking on the continent is vitally important.

This, if it must be stressed, is no mean feat. But, again, as the She Cranes have shown, there are rich rewards if a rock-solid grassroots development programme is propped up. 

The manner in which the She Cranes have effortlessly replaced stalwarts like Peace Proscovia is as admirable as it is instructive. Basically, the foot has not been set off the gas at any point in time.

Ugandan cricket whose once-upon-a-time award-winning grassroots development programme has been run into the ground to the point of relying on naturalised players (mercenaries if you will) would do well to take note. Good luck to the team and indeed you, dear reader, in 2024.