On a sunny morning at Kampala’s main cricket oval, members of Uganda’s national men’s team are put through their paces by their new head coach. The Cricket Cranes, dressed in bright red, are preparing for their first T20 World Cup, a “dream come true” in a country where football reigns supreme. However, they face a difficult road ahead in the competition, which is being co-hosted by the United States and the West Indies and runs from June 1 to June 29.
Their opponents include New Zealand and the West Indies, as well as Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea, with matches conducted in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
Time is not on their side; just a month ago, the Uganda Cricket Association appointed Indian former first-class cricketer Abhay Sharma as the men’s national team’s new head coach.
“We hardly have time to rest. “It’s going to be high intensity preparations,” Cranes captain Brian Masaba, 32, said AFP after the training session was cut short by rain.
Masaba has already received recognition for his efforts.
In mid-May, the International Cricket Council named him the captain with the second-highest number of T20 international wins (44 in 56 matches), after only Pakistan’s Babar Azam.
“If we can pick up a couple of wins at the World Cup, it would be a huge bonus for us. But more importantly for me is the platform the World Cup gives Uganda as a country,” Masaba added.
“So it is important for us as ambassadors of the game to portray the country in a good light and that’s by going out there and playing good cricket.”
Uganda participated in the 1975 ODI World Cup as part of a composite East African team with Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, despite this being their first World Cup as a nation.
British colonial settlers initially brought cricket to the area in the late 19th century, and it quickly gained popularity among the many Indian laborers who were brought in to work on East African railways.
