Let’s cheer the Cricket Cranes at World Cup

The never-ending trials and tribulations that stretched back to 2001 finally yielded fruit with qualification for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup.

The national senior men’s cricket team – the Cricket Cranes – will be part of the event to be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States from June 1 to 29.

It will be the first ICC World Cup tournament to feature matches played in the United States, and in any other country in the Americas outside the West Indies.

England are the defending champions, having defeated Pakistan in the final of the previous edition.

Cricket arrived in Uganda with the construction of the East Africa Railway back in the 1890s but it took 100 years to get international recognition.

While Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) had been formed earlier, admission into the International Cricket Council (ICC) did not come until 1998.

Therefore, at the World Cup, our preoccupation cannot be on what we could achieve as a country on the pitch. 

Uganda is in group C alongside New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea. Some pundits say Uganda will not win more than one game.

However, thinking about the World Cup in terms of wins and losses is taking a minimalistic view for this fish swimming in an ocean of sharks.

For the players, making it to the World Cup is not only a personal triumph but also collective achievement for a sport seen as elitist.

To the contrary, this so-called gentleman’s game has most of its players coming from the Naguru slum, which was razed by the government.

They have overcome so many odds that are exemplified in the longevity and spirit of Mr Frank Nsubuga.

Mr Nsubuga,43, will be the oldest player in the 20-team tournament. Everyone has got to pay attention to his story as he is an embodiment of everything that Uganda should be – doing more than is expected of you.

While every one of these players has a personal story, the benefit of having our team in the Caribbean cannot be understated.

The men’s 2022 Twenty20 World Cup generated 6.65 billion views across all ICC platforms, cricket’s global governing body has revealed. That figure surpassed engagement for the 2021 edition of the tournament by 65 percent, making it the most digitally engaged ICC event to date.

So, that we have the eyeballs, what do we intend to showcase? Good cricket is one. Gamesmanship and introduction to our country is also critical.

While only a few of us can make it to the West Indies, the rest of us can cheer the team in voice and by acquiring that jersey.