David Katende, the National Council of Sports (NCS) Assistant General secretary, has today Monday 3, July,2023 flagged off the Uganda Cricket Cranes team to Namibia, where it will battle with the Eagles of Namibia, who are the hosts. The Cricket Cranes will travel to Namibia on Tuesday morning for the Castle Lite series.
According to the organisers, this will be the third clash between the Cricket Cranes and the Eagles of Namibia, who are the highest-ranked Nation in T-20 cricket and the 13th in the entire world.
On their last visit to Namibia last year, the Cricket Cranes lost the T20 series 2-1 and drew the One Day International (ODI) series 1-1, and coach Laurence Mahatlane believes this is another opportunity for his team to show how far they have come.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to test ourselves against an ODI team and a team ranked 13th in the T20Is.” Of the 11 T20 games we have lost out of 54 over the last three years, five have been against Namibia and one each against the Netherlands and Philippine National Games (PNG),” said Mahatlane.
He added that they need to see how much smarter they have become against experienced opposition and also to keep building on the experience of unstable conditions on and off the field, stating that it will be important to the team when the qualifiers happen there on November 20, 2023.
The tour is expected to run from July 4th–13th and will feature 4 T20I and 2 ODI matches if all factors remain constant in preparation for the 2024 T20 World Cup qualifiers.
The Cricket Cranes are comprised of 14 players, and these include Brian Masaba, Kenneth Waiswa, Juma Miyagi, Ronald Lutaaya, Simon Sessaazi, Robinson Obuya, Dinesh Nakrani, Alpesh Ramjani, Riazat Ali Shah, Henry Ssenyondo, Cyrus Kakuru, and Frank Nsubuga.