“Eye-opening”.
That was how Uganda captain Brian Masaba described his team’s first T20 World Cup campaign. And despite winning only one game in the tournament, he said being part of the competition will do a lot for the game which is still very much a niche sport in the East African nation.
Uganda concluded their campaign at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, with a nine-wicket defeat against New Zealand, Friday night.
Sent to bat first, Uganda were dismissed for 40 in 18.4 overs while New Zealand replied with 41 for one off 5.2 overs.
“It’s been very eye-opening for us as a team, playing at this level for the first time against some of the full member teams,” Masaba said after the game.
Uganda lost their opening match to Afghanistan by 125 runs, won their second game against Papua New Guinea by three wickets before losing to the hosts West Indies by 134 runs last week.
“You realise the skill level is a bit different, the execution is very different and I mean these are professional players that play all around the world, so they’re very, very good players and as a player that’s aspiring to get better, there is no better lesson than that to carry back home because it just shows you how much more work you need to put in to be able to come back and compete favourably,” Masaba explained.
And having had such an experience, the Uganda captain said they have different targets now as players and as a team as they seek to return to the showpiece event in the future.
He said the experience of mingling with the best players in the world has had a positive effect on his squad.
“I can guarantee you they are not going to go back home the same. The mindset has definitely changed and maybe sometimes that’s all you need to become a better player,” said Masaba.
He continued: “It was important for us to make it to the World Cup for the first time because now our targets are different. We want to make sure we come back again and again and that’s what you want as a team because then it shows that you’re growing.”
He added: “It’s important for us to expand our pool of players just to increase the level of competitiveness in the team, so it’s going to be one huge effort for everyone involved.”
Reflecting on the campaign, Masaba said his side had come very far in terms of their cricket and that the win against PNG, their first at a World Cup, is “definitely the highlight of my career and something that’s dear to me for the rest of my life.” He is also hoping that having been part of the World Cup can attract more support for the growth of cricket in Uganda from the government, private sector and the ICC.
“There’s been a lot of good work over the last four or five years in regards to trying to make sure there’s some sort of structures and some sort of stability with the national teams. It’s not always been the easiest because of the lack of facilities, but you’ve got to find a way to work around that. You just try and do the best that you can with what you have,” he said of the state of the game in Uganda.
“But considering the fact that this team has done well over the last four or five years, there’s been a bit more resources coming in from the ICC as well as the private sector and that has definitely helped in preparing the team for all these tournaments that we’ve played. And we can only hope that us being at the World Cup opens up more doors in that regard, especially back home with our government, because we do need them to get a bit more involved in terms of providing the infrastructure so the game can grow a bit more,” Masaba explained.
“It’s still a niche sport back home and the community is not as huge as say football or rugby but it’s growing again because the team has done well.”
And in concluding, Masaba noted a few things, namely, that, “a couple of years ago, at most you’d get two or three traveling fans. This time we’ve got a whole contingent and again it’s small little wins that we look for; it’s the positives that we can pick up and for me that’s a big sign that the game is growing and again the whole country got behind this team…
“I believe the game is headed in the right direction.”
Summarised scores:
Uganda 40, 20 overs (Kenneth Waiswa 11; Tim Southee 3/4, Trent Boult 2/7, Mitchell Santner 2/8, Rachin Ravindra 2/9)
vs New Zealand 41-1, 5.2 overs (Devon Conway 22 n.o.)
—New Zealand won by nine wickets.
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