The Cricket Cranes sank to their lowest ebb in years, when they lost to the USA in their final round-robin clash of the ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament on Monday in Entebbe.
Going into the tournament, Uganda’s aim was to finish in the top two and qualify for division two. But by Monday, that appeared a bridge too far because of the earlier losses to Oman and Canada. Uganda was third on the log from the six teams in the tournament.
Uganda needed one of those two teams to lose. But also score many runs to raise its net run-rate to usurp one of those teams into second.
However, in losing, Uganda dropped to division four for the first time since the ICC inaugurated divisions for its associate members, that do not play test cricket like Australia, India, England and South Africa, among others. Cricket Cranes coach Stephen Tikolo said they were not good enough.
“Our batting was bad generally,” he charged.
Team captain Davis Arinaitwe said that to fail to secure promotion was one disappointment. But dropping to division four now requires deep soul-searching. Since Uganda were relegated to division three in 2011, there have been three attempts to get back into division two, which a number of the current players have been part of. Former national team coach Henry Okecho said, “There may never be a better time for this because we have nothing to lose now that we are in division four. It is time to build anew.”
For what it is worth, in a similar tournament in 2007 held in Darwin, Australia, and later in 2009, Uganda beat the likes of Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong to get into division two. Today, those three teams are in division one while Uganda is in division four.
It says a lot about how the Cricket Cranes have been operating in reverse, and Irfan Afridi’s tournament high 108 runs score against Malaysia last weekend in a 193/6 against 189/10 win, turns out to be a mere footnote.
jovi@observer.ug
