No major changes likely in squad to South Africa
Feb 16, 2009
AS Uganda enters the final stages of its buildup for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup Qualifier, there is little indication the team which finished second in Argentina will ultimately undergo any dramatic changes.
By Charles Mutebi
AS Uganda enters the final stages of its buildup for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup Qualifier, there is little indication the team which finished second in Argentina will ultimately undergo any dramatic changes.
Uganda came within a whisker of failing to make it out of last month’s ICC Division 3 World Cricket League, ushering the team’s batting into intense scrutiny with a consensus emerging that if the middle order posts similar returns in South Africa, Uganda will be heavily punished.
The selectors agree more Ugandan batsmen must deliver and efforts are afoot to do just that. But it is highly unlikely those efforts include bringing in some new faces. For one, the team has entered a second week without Ebrahim Mohammed, who returned home to write Level 5 coaching exams.
The South African coach left his assistant Francis Otieno with a comprehensive training regiment which, among other things, includes working on individual batting, an indication that Mohammed has gone for improving his players rather than changing them.
National team spokesman Latimar Mukasa confirmed it was unlikely the team will be rigged for the Qualifier.
“Maybe if they are to make changes, it might be with the two players - Raymond Otim and Lawrence Ssematimba - who were dropped for Argentina,†he said.
In fact, Mukasa revealed the two players might even be taken as contingency, in addition to the full squad of 14, such is the reluctance to changing the team.
Mukasa further dismissed the idea of recalling Patrick Ochan and Jimmy Okello, who illegally stayed in Australia after the 2007 ICC Division 3 World Cricket, as impossible.
“At this late stage, it (recalling Ochan and Okello) can’t work,†he said.
“First of all, we (officials) don’t know where they are exactly. Secondly, there is no money to bring them down here and even if we could, I don’t think they would be interested as coming back here would be risking deportation.â€
AS Uganda enters the final stages of its buildup for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup Qualifier, there is little indication the team which finished second in Argentina will ultimately undergo any dramatic changes.
Uganda came within a whisker of failing to make it out of last month’s ICC Division 3 World Cricket League, ushering the team’s batting into intense scrutiny with a consensus emerging that if the middle order posts similar returns in South Africa, Uganda will be heavily punished.
The selectors agree more Ugandan batsmen must deliver and efforts are afoot to do just that. But it is highly unlikely those efforts include bringing in some new faces. For one, the team has entered a second week without Ebrahim Mohammed, who returned home to write Level 5 coaching exams.
The South African coach left his assistant Francis Otieno with a comprehensive training regiment which, among other things, includes working on individual batting, an indication that Mohammed has gone for improving his players rather than changing them.
National team spokesman Latimar Mukasa confirmed it was unlikely the team will be rigged for the Qualifier.
“Maybe if they are to make changes, it might be with the two players - Raymond Otim and Lawrence Ssematimba - who were dropped for Argentina,†he said.
In fact, Mukasa revealed the two players might even be taken as contingency, in addition to the full squad of 14, such is the reluctance to changing the team.
Mukasa further dismissed the idea of recalling Patrick Ochan and Jimmy Okello, who illegally stayed in Australia after the 2007 ICC Division 3 World Cricket, as impossible.
“At this late stage, it (recalling Ochan and Okello) can’t work,†he said.
“First of all, we (officials) don’t know where they are exactly. Secondly, there is no money to bring them down here and even if we could, I don’t think they would be interested as coming back here would be risking deportation.â€