The men’s national hockey team started training on Tuesday evening at Lugogo in preparation for the Zambezi Series in Zambia in June.

With a provisional squad of 33 players summoned for training, former team coach Innocent Raskara has been demoted to one of the players in the team.

Team coach Vincent Kasasa, who dreams of propelling the Hockey Cranes back to the top, named new faces on the team with a focus on development.

Fresh talent Jackson Musinguzi, Jordan Achaye, and other lads on the 33-man provisional team will need to prove their worth to the tactician to be named in the final squad.

Players such as Thomas Opio, Richard Ssemwogerere Martin Okello, Coline Batus, and Asharaf Tumwesigye were all dropped, and it is without a doubt that the second coming of Kasasa would see many changes on the team due to the type of hockey the tactician cherishes.

Batusa not being summoned is not attributed to indiscipline as earlier noted, but rather family issues that require his presence at all times, while Tumwesigye’s omission from the team is not yet known.

Ashraf Tumwesigye in action

Stephen Jjuuko, an administrator in one of the local clubs acknowledges that Kasasa’s selection is not doubted but the Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) needs to come out and defend the omissions from the squad.

“Coach Kasasa's selection is a no-brainer as the country's best-qualified and most successful coach in recent times, but UHA needs to explain its selection mechanism," Jjuuko said.

“It is, however, a strange selection because the former coach has been selected having played a few games the whole season. I'd think he would serve the team well in an assistant coach position having coached them in the last games.”

On the women’s side, team tactician Moses Nsereko who coached the side in 2022 at the Hockey AFCON in Ghana dropped half of the team, retaining only Norah Alum, Winnie Alaro, Magret Nassiwa, Jolly Alimo, Teopista Anyango, Doreen Assimwe, Joy Sserunjogi, and Twaibah Kiggundu.

With the Hockey AFCON set for next year, young players from the developmental sides like the Hockey Dreams Foundation have been summoned to have a feel of the national team in preparation for the games.