Uganda to warm up in Dubai

By Norman Katende

THE national cricket team is taking no chances as they prepare to make a comeback to the ICC Division II Cricket league with a warm up trip to Dubai.

The Dubai trip is set to help the team get exposure and improve on their playing style as they prepare for the Bermuda ICC Division III league action where six nations will be battling for the two promotion slots.

Uganda will be battling hosts Bermuda, Oman, Italy, Nepal and USA with the top two nations joining UAE, Hong Kong, Namibia and Papua New Guinea in Division II Cricket.

The national team that took a one week Christmas break on Friday will return to training on January 3 to resume preparations to gain an entry to the Pepsi ICC World Cup qualifiers and also back to the Division II Cricket, which comes with more technical and financial support.

“It is going to be a tight programme and all preparations are aimed at making us a better outfit. We will start real serious training ahead of the Dubai trip that comes later in January,” said national team captain Davis Karashani of the trip.

Choosing to learn against a team that has constantly been a thorn in their side will be of great help to the national team, that is battling to gain some valuable exposure and  experience, some of the causes that were blamed to their not having a  good show in the T-20 World Cup qualifiers and Division II cricket ties of recent.

The national team has been training for the last three months and in December they had a trip to Kenya which head coach Martin Suji described as a good learning experience for the players.

They played a 3 day game which was tied and also played a series of T-20 games.