There are years in a sport that are better left unsaid but particular moments in those years will etch an eternal memory. Perhaps that is the best way to describe the state of netball in 2023.

It was a World Cup year that saw the She Cranes break into the top five in their fourth-ever appearance at the competition but it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

League action

The first part of the year set a bad tone that carried on for the rest of the year. In January the second round of the netball season did not start on time. The umpires had refused to officiate because they hadn't reportedly received allowances. Luckily that situation was handled swiftly.

The league season came down to three teams competing for the title, NIC, Prisons, and the high-flying KCCA. The title fight went to the final week and KCCA and Prisons were the two vying for it all. Prisons played a good final match of the season to win the title against KCCA.

National team

Soon after that, coach Fred Mugerwa summoned the national team for preparations for the World Cup whilst NIC and Prisons participated in the East Africa Games. NIC won another championship while preparations for the World Cup were very much underway. The She Cranes were working hard to prepare for the World Cup and were partaking in grueling preparations at TLC Kamwokya, Lugogo, Africa Bible College, and Nakirebe. The She Cranes suffered on a physical level averaging two training sessions per day while preparing for the competition. They played countless training matches against the male netball teams and this made them one of the fittest teams at the world cup. They were drawn in pool c with New Zealand, Singapore, and Trinidad and Tobago. The She Cranes advanced out of the group and gave then-defending champions New Zealand a big scare in their 54-44 loss. The math was very indicative of how strong Uganda was and they carried the same mantra during the rest of the competition.  They defeated South Africa for the first time in the country’s history to secure fifth place at the World Cup and etch their place in history.

“We had enough time to prepare ourselves and the players were a unit. Whoever was put on the court to play was giving their best because they wanted to achieve that,” explained Mugerwa.

Beginning of the end

While all this was happening, the tides were changing for the former Uganda Netball Federation president Sarah Babirye Kityo who after countless meetings was asked to step down from the sport to allow investigations into possible accountability issues and leadership wrangles. She was asked to step away for at least three months until investigations were concluded. She didn’t listen to all directives sent out by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports and continued to work unbothered.

She tried to force her way back on the eve of the She Cranes trip to South Africa and with this, she was told to stay on the sidelines.

With the return of the national team came a new set of problems for Babirye who had abused previous directives. Brig Flavia Byekwaso was instated as UNF president on an acting basis. This was the sanest move for the government as she was being accused of many crimes including opening various accounts in the name of the UNF. It was also revealed during this time that Babirye had been suspended by World Netball as early as May 2023 but she still went on to negotiate contracts for the netball national team and in doing so was banned by World Netball.

World Netball appointed a Normalisation Committee led by Moses Mwase and they will be in charge of steering the sport in a good direction. The next phase will be to organise elections and move past the horror show of 2023 especially from an administrative perspective.

Conclusion
To coach Fred Mugerwa, 2023 has been good. “As far as Netball is concerned it has been good because going to the World Cup as number 8 and coming back as number 5. I think it was a very good achievement.”