Not yet your turn Uganda

The Africa Under-19 Cricket Championship ended on Wednesday in Kampala. Ronnie Kintu rounds up the tournament. THE battlelines are no more. Not much of a thrill was it either for Uganda. The national under-19 team failed to prove their prowess on the fine all weather wicket at Kyambogo leaving Namibia to run away with the coveted prize. The breath-taking battles were between the under 19 teams of Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, East and Central Africa and a combination of West Africa that participated in the ICC Africa tournament which was a qualifier for the 2002 World Cup. As the other Ugandan players were licking their wounds after two straight defeats, team captain Kenneth Kamyuka had his other ideas. He decided to let off steam with a steamy sex escapade at the Uganda team's hotel in Kampala. Rightly so Kamyuka was sacked from the team but his behaviour could be a pointer to the poor performace of the whole team. Playing with championship pedigree Namibia proved supreme as they emerged winners of the tournament hosted by Uganda losing only to West Africa. Kenya, the automatic World Cup participant, did not prove its strength having won only one game against West Africa and failing to go over ECACC, Namibia and Uganda. Uganda started on the right note with a massive 279 runs win against West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana and the Gambia) at Lugogo. The game that was played at Lugogo oval saw the youngsters play to their best having won the toss and opted to bat first. Sematimba the then vice captain started the tourney on a high note hitting a swashbuckling century of 135 runs off 138 balls with 18 fours and a big six. He also claimed two wickets and took a superb catch that saw him grab the man of the match award. In the same game, mid order batsmen Richard Okia (50 n. o) and Chris Engola (45 n.o) proved to be a bedrock for the side putting supporters in high spirits. The next two games were a misfortune as Uganda lost to East and Central Africa by two wickets and to Namibia by eight wickets at Kyambogo oval. What could have gone wrong with the homeboys? That was the big question on peoples' lips. The under 19's had no solid bat options and only depended on one all rounder Lawrence Sematimba. Uganda could have performed far better than that if the technical committee of the team was analytical to realise that all teams were not the same and so each team needed a different approach. Indeed had Uganda included star batsmen like Junior Kwebiha (19), Joel Olweny (19) and lifted up Joseph Ongaria (19) from the reserves for the sake of strengthening the bating wing of the team, the teens' dream of making it to the World Cup would have been a more realistic target. Looking at Uganda's team, it was basically a bowling power with medium pace bowlers like Richard Okia, Kenneth Kamyuka, Adam Jumba, Chris Engola, Geoffrey Serunkuma and Fred Isabirye among others dominating the team. "No good team can perform without batsmen; we needed a few more bats to keep the touch lighting." Remarked the then captain Kenneth Kamyuka after the two losses. Coach William Kamanyi should not be blamed for the youngster's performance. He was given the duty to come up with a squad only one week after being with them on the field. The 40 boys who attended the cricket academy were Kamanyi's scope of selection after seeing them perform in the schools cricket week early September. Talking to the boys after losing the two matches, The New Vision learnt that a week before the tournament started, they were brought a new coach Steve Tikolo who disappeared only after a few days. They also claim they had only one practice match at Kyambogo oval and the rest were at Lugogo were they managed to register their only two wins against West Africa and Kenya. As if that was not enough some believe they were disorganised with the new bowling machine they were not used to just a few days to the tournament. If all the above is true, the management of the national junior team is to blame for all the mishaps. Looking at the performance of all the other teams, the "crane boys" were just unlucky not to have made it to the World Cup after notching the highest team score (356 against West Africa) and the highest individual score (Sematimba 136) that other teams failed to break. Africa representatives' Namibia, did not score above 180 runs throughout the tournament and also had the same problem like the Ugandans. Namibia had one star batsman Stefan Swanepoel who finished the tournament with 77 as his highest score, accumulating 166 runs and an average of 83.00. The game Namibia lost to West Africa by ten runs was one to watch. The moment Namibia dependable batsman and Captain Swanepoel was dismissed for a duck on the first ball, all the remaining batsmen collapsed and tail enders failed to score the winning ten runs in the last 20 overs. This was a big surprise victory to the West Africans. East and Central Africa also heavily depended on their captain Utpal Patel who performed tremendously well throughout the tournament scoring an average of 45 runs every game. The ace was backed by teammate Jignesh Patel who was another superb batsman on the side. West Africa had a few all rounders that failed to specialise and ended up losing three of the four matches played. Like Uganda, the side also had many medium pace bowlers like O. Animashaun who finished with nine wickets in 27 overs giving away only 121 runs and notching a best one days haul of 4 wickets for 67 runs against Uganda. Kenya, a team that every one expected to produce the best show after performing fairly well in last years' World Cup (Sri Lanka) was a disgrace to the majority and many wondered what representation the side will show in the 2002 World Cup. The future is bright for the Uganda youngsters, many chances are still ahead of them and above all they were exposed to international cricket an opportunity most of them did not have before. To the cricket fans let us not lose morale but pray and hope that the squad to visit Canada for the mini World Cup in June make the most out of the tour. Collated results: Day one- Uganda Vs West Africa, Uganda 356 for 8 in 50 overs, West Africa 77 all out in 33.5 overs. Day two-Uganda Vs ECACC, Uganda 147 all out in 43.2 overs, ECACC 148 for 6 in 45 overs Day three - Uganda Vs Namibia, Uganda 157 all out, Namibia 160 for 2 in 33 overs. Day five - Uganda Vs Kenya, Kenya 109 all out in 47.1 overs, Uganda 113 for 9 in 42 overs . Ends.