By Kalungi Kabuye

It is said that only a mad man does the same thing again and again, but expects a different outcome. If that has even any grain of truth, then the people that govern and run sports in this country must be stark, raving mad.

The Uganda national netball team, the She Cranes, have done more than almost anything to give this country a much-needed positive vibe. Time and again, and against tremendous odds, they have given their all to make us shine. And what do they get? Maybe a lousy lunch at the parliamentary canteen, and a few photo opportunities with the nation’s top-paid officials.

They are currently doing it again down in Cape Town, where the 2023 Netball World Cup is taking place. A quick Google search shows the world just loves these girls, and glowing articles from all over the world are top of the search results. Pundits covering the World Cup can’t stop talking about the ‘little’ nations causing the big ones all kinds of problems, and Jamaica, Malawi and Uganda are the ones being mentioned the most.

But barely a few months ago, an Internet search brought all kinds of bad stories about the She Cranes, and all the woes they went through as they prepared for the World Cup. A dysfunctional national federation, where tales of corruption shocked even the jaded members of our national Parliament. It was alleged that even the little money that netball got from the National Council of Sports was given back in kickbacks. We have all heard about girls getting injuries because of training on poor surfaces, because the only national indoor court at Lugogo was fully booked for weddings and other social functions. In fact, they entered residential camp barely a month to the World Cup, when an offer came from the Africa Bible University in Lubowa.

Previously, the She Cranes had been ranked as high as sixth in the world, but that ranking dropped because the team could not play in ranking games. And the reason? They had to pull out of the World Cup qualifiers because there was no money, and so were fined for that. And they couldn’t pay the fine, so they couldn’t play till they did. So the ranking dropped to eighth.

Luckily, the private sector realised that the She Cranes are a good thing and stepped in where the dwanzies in government feared to tread. Corporate sponsorship is the main reason that the She Cranes are making those big waves at the World Cup.

Interestingly, there was a story in the media about the former Uganda soccer captain, Dennis Onyango, who plays in the South African football league, visiting the She Cranes camp and giving them advice. Seriously? The She Cranes have been to four World Cups, and I bet the soccer Cranes would even lose the Masaza Cup. But Onyango is a nice guy that has given his all for country, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile, another women’s national team, the Gazelles (basketball), are also giving Uganda warm feelings. This week, the girls are playing in the International Basketball Federation Women’s Afrobasket tournament in Kigali, Rwanda.

On Saturday they overcame 11-time champions Senegal 85- 83 in the biggest upset of the tournament. Then they went on to beat the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has a long successful basketball history despite their political woes. Now they face traditional rivals Rwanda for a place in the quarter-finals.

Just like the She Cranes, the Gazelles get very little love from the government officials that run sports in this country. All that love is reserved for soccer, which gets the lion share of the almost sh50b sports budget.

The breakdown of the 2023/24 budget shows that soccer got sh17b, with all the other national federations sharing the rest. Conversely, netball’s budget was further reduced to sh300m. Basketball was a bit luckier, with an allocation of about sh1b.

So, what is this repeated fascination with soccer? A former National Council of Sports chairman famously said football in this country was run by ‘potato growers’, and, sure enough, they have never won anything substantial.

For the record, only two Uganda national teams have ever played at a World Cup: the She Cranes and rugby’s Lady Cranes (I am not including Ludo, you will forgive me).

No one realistically expects the soccer Cranes to ever even qualify for the FIFA World Cup in the next few lifetimes, so why do government officials keep pumping the lion’s share of funding to them?

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so the people running sports in this country are insane, stark raving mad.