Why Uganda’s XI flopped in Ireland
Jul 13, 2005
UGANDA returned to a heroes’ welcome when they won the East and Central Africa title in 1991 and when they finished 10th on their debut in the ICC Trophy in 2001.
By Louis Jadwong and Sabiiti Muwanga
UGANDA returned to a heroes’ welcome when they won the East and Central Africa title in 1991 and when they finished 10th on their debut in the ICC Trophy in 2001.
They return quietly today after one of the most expensive losses.
Uganda had a chance to grab a prize of $0.5m (sh900m) for development offered to the five teams making it to the 2007 World Cup in West Indies, but return today after managing to finish 12th out of 12 teams.
A combination of poor preparations and over-confidence left a team that was supposed to be flying to the West Indies in 2007, back with pride shattered.
Uganda will as a result of the shambles of Ireland 2005 have to go through the qualifiers the next time round, and have lost their world number 10 ranking among non-Test playing countries.
John Lubia, national captain at the last ICC Trophy, was nearly in tears when he read the result on the New Vision website, www.newvision.co.ug.
“We’re now the worst team around, can you imagine?†he wrote.
“I am just gutted and disappointed that we’ve not only missed out on going to West Indies but we have also missed $500,000. That money would have sorted out our cricket for the next 10 years,†Lubia said.
When Lubia led Uganda to warm-up victories over teams like Ireland in 2001, he naturally dreamt of outright victory for a more experienced team this time round.
Instead, Ireland made Uganda look like tourists this time, and marched on to snatch one of the five places.
Although officials on the team insist the team was not up to world standard, a number of events in the build up to the tournament that the New Vision brought to light, clearly affected Uganda’s performance. One issue the press shouted about, was poor batting which was eventually Uganda’s undoing in Ireland.
Instead of addressing the issues, officials of the national team and UCA bosses, first promised to bring a foreign coach to address the weaknesses before putting a ban on pressmen interviewing national team players.
It climaxed with a big joke, when one official even threatened to throw a fully accredited reporter from the ICC tournament in Ireland.
Team manager Richard Mwami insisted Uganda is not good enough to compete at the World Cup. “We are not good enough in terms of application. It is high time we take on a deliberate plan to have more and more of our boys exposed for better cricket,†Mwami said.
The first signs that Uganda was going off track was when the architect behind the 2001 World Cup performance Tom Tikolo was dropped.
Although he did not travel with the team, Tikolo coached and picked the team. He was thereafter given the national coach job as Uganda started challenging the Kenyans.
Tikolo, who has seen it all having captained Kenya to success in the ICC Trophy itself, was dropped mysteriously because the Uganda Cricket Association suddenly had no money to employ him.
Tikolo was not only technically sound but also his managerial abilities were above question.
Kenyan coach Nazar Mudassar advised in April that the only way out was to have a coach who had played cricket to a level higher than the local game.
Poor selection equally cost the team, with players like Africa Cricket Club (ACC) opener Charles Lwanga being constantly ignored.
“Here we rate the Olwenys (skipper Joel) on statistics based on the league. Why don’t we consider a batsman who is able to score 30 runs against the fierce Tornado bowlers? Instead we look at centuries scored by their batsmen against mediocre opposition,†one fan said yesterday.
“Four years ago I witnessed a miracle when Uganda was catapulted from 24th to tenth position,†Abbey Lutaaya, a former UCA chief said.
Lutaaya said that while he did not expect Uganda to qualify for the World Cup, he was confident the team would be able to retain her position among the top ten. “We should have beaten Denmark, Oman and Papua New Guinea,†he observed.
He however exonerated the team management, putting the blame on the local facilities.
“It is only Ligyalingi (Justin) with a diploma coaching licence here but he has other chores. We cannot afford the kind of facilities our colleagues in the first world have, including coaching personnel,†he observed.
UGANDA returned to a heroes’ welcome when they won the East and Central Africa title in 1991 and when they finished 10th on their debut in the ICC Trophy in 2001.
They return quietly today after one of the most expensive losses.
Uganda had a chance to grab a prize of $0.5m (sh900m) for development offered to the five teams making it to the 2007 World Cup in West Indies, but return today after managing to finish 12th out of 12 teams.
A combination of poor preparations and over-confidence left a team that was supposed to be flying to the West Indies in 2007, back with pride shattered.
Uganda will as a result of the shambles of Ireland 2005 have to go through the qualifiers the next time round, and have lost their world number 10 ranking among non-Test playing countries.
John Lubia, national captain at the last ICC Trophy, was nearly in tears when he read the result on the New Vision website, www.newvision.co.ug.
“We’re now the worst team around, can you imagine?†he wrote.
“I am just gutted and disappointed that we’ve not only missed out on going to West Indies but we have also missed $500,000. That money would have sorted out our cricket for the next 10 years,†Lubia said.
When Lubia led Uganda to warm-up victories over teams like Ireland in 2001, he naturally dreamt of outright victory for a more experienced team this time round.
Instead, Ireland made Uganda look like tourists this time, and marched on to snatch one of the five places.
Although officials on the team insist the team was not up to world standard, a number of events in the build up to the tournament that the New Vision brought to light, clearly affected Uganda’s performance. One issue the press shouted about, was poor batting which was eventually Uganda’s undoing in Ireland.
Instead of addressing the issues, officials of the national team and UCA bosses, first promised to bring a foreign coach to address the weaknesses before putting a ban on pressmen interviewing national team players.
It climaxed with a big joke, when one official even threatened to throw a fully accredited reporter from the ICC tournament in Ireland.
Team manager Richard Mwami insisted Uganda is not good enough to compete at the World Cup. “We are not good enough in terms of application. It is high time we take on a deliberate plan to have more and more of our boys exposed for better cricket,†Mwami said.
The first signs that Uganda was going off track was when the architect behind the 2001 World Cup performance Tom Tikolo was dropped.
Although he did not travel with the team, Tikolo coached and picked the team. He was thereafter given the national coach job as Uganda started challenging the Kenyans.
Tikolo, who has seen it all having captained Kenya to success in the ICC Trophy itself, was dropped mysteriously because the Uganda Cricket Association suddenly had no money to employ him.
Tikolo was not only technically sound but also his managerial abilities were above question.
Kenyan coach Nazar Mudassar advised in April that the only way out was to have a coach who had played cricket to a level higher than the local game.
Poor selection equally cost the team, with players like Africa Cricket Club (ACC) opener Charles Lwanga being constantly ignored.
“Here we rate the Olwenys (skipper Joel) on statistics based on the league. Why don’t we consider a batsman who is able to score 30 runs against the fierce Tornado bowlers? Instead we look at centuries scored by their batsmen against mediocre opposition,†one fan said yesterday.
“Four years ago I witnessed a miracle when Uganda was catapulted from 24th to tenth position,†Abbey Lutaaya, a former UCA chief said.
Lutaaya said that while he did not expect Uganda to qualify for the World Cup, he was confident the team would be able to retain her position among the top ten. “We should have beaten Denmark, Oman and Papua New Guinea,†he observed.
He however exonerated the team management, putting the blame on the local facilities.
“It is only Ligyalingi (Justin) with a diploma coaching licence here but he has other chores. We cannot afford the kind of facilities our colleagues in the first world have, including coaching personnel,†he observed.