Ugandan teams put their best foot forward in Accra

This past week those moments when Ugandan sport usually appears to be dark and eerily quiet evaporated with each passing day thanks in no small part to the 13th staging of the African Games.

The games that ended in the Ghana capital of Accra, continue to be richly colourful. 

Team Uganda, whose medal count has breached the double digit mark, is evidently not nearly as vulnerable as her adversaries assumed, but not nearly as formidable as she herself presumed.

Regardless, it has been greatly pleasing—even satisfying—watching Ugandan teams do ever so well dealing with varied pressures in the cauldron. 

It of course all started with Husinah Kobugabe and Gladys Mbabazi teaming up for a historic badminton gold medal.

Since then, the football (men and women), rugby (men and women), and—to a certain degree—cricket (men and women) teams have enjoyed hard-won gains that have promised to catapult them to stardom. 

The Hippos' come-from-behind 4-2 win over Congo Brazzaville in the football competition the other day was eminently pleasurable.

Embodying the recklessness of youth, Morley Byekwaso’s charges were at once belligerent and carefree. And Ugandans in whom the young players found an attentive audience loved the reckless abandon. 

This column was also struck by a telling difference in the broadcasting of matches. The contrast only serves to underline the enormous chasm between ICC Africa and Rugby Afrique.

Your columnist wrote this column while watching Uganda do an abjectly shabby job of chasing a target of 112 that Namibia set in a semi-final match.

The Cricket Cranes pulled up 24 runs short despite Roger Mukasa's valiant attempt to anchor their innings.

To be clear, this was an unacceptable performance by a team supposedly putting the final touches ahead of making a bow at the ICC T20 World Cup.

We will revisit this inquest in subsequent weeks. For now, though, plaudits should be given to ICC Africa that was savvy enough to give the branding rights for the tournament to Sports Eye, a Dubai-based entity.

If ICC Africa was keen to claim preeminence in delivering a flawless visual product on digital platforms, it cannot—like Uganda's batting against Namibia—be accused of missing the bullseye.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Rugby Afrique. Its broadcast of matches in Accra was memorably awful.

In a classic case of settling for the least bad option, rugby aficionados had to tilt their digital gadgets to watch bright lights like Philip Wokorach and Peace Lekuru in action.

In doing so, viewers were edged towards a position where they—against their better wishes—absorbed what truly were unendurable details.

Take the episodes where the commentators kept panting as if they had made a beeline for the try box on the pitch.

This doubtless cast an unvarnished light on a tournament where things went swimmingly for all two of Uganda's representatives.  More on this later.

A few rugby aficionados your columnist spoke to had reason to believe that the gentlemen on commentary duties during the tournament are not really commentators in the conventional sense.

This, perhaps, explains why their energy levels in the booth did not leap to acceptable levels.

Also, it was totally unacceptable for the ‘commentators’ to mockingly laugh at players and teams that came off second best during the tournament.

It is the fervent hope of this column that lightning does not strike twice in the future. Rugby Afrique should borrow ICC Africa's template.

The slapdash digital product the former put together did not put much stock in looking the part. Rugby Afrique cannot continue to put no effort in its online persona.

The body that oversees the hand-egg sport on the continent should not find comfort in doing the bear minimum. Not in this Information Age where there are so many competing interests.

To have our undivided attention, Rugby Afrique should not commit the elementary error of not caring.

Oh, did I mention that Uganda's men and women rugby teams won gold almost at a canter in Accra. Congratulations are in order.