Tony Munro
The Ugandan allrounder and player of the tournament at the recent World Cricket League Division 3 tournament in Argentina, Kenneth Kamyuka, is likely to continue batting in the lower order for the World Cup Qualifiers (WCQs) in South Africa in April. Ebrahim Mohamed, coach of Uganda, rejected assertions that the 27-year-old would be of more use batting higher in the order.
"Kenny batted in the correct place in Argentina - we needed him to come in and hit boundaries, during the batting Powerplay as well, so as the coach I will make the decisions as required. Kenny will bat at seven and will go higher when required," Mohamed said.
Uganda would stay home to focus on areas of concern regarding the batting, which Mohamed said needed improving. "I will look to the batters putting in a lot of one-day skill work such as keeping momentum after good starts, rotating the strike, hitting boundaries and the like," he said. "We need to improve in the middle order and get at least 250 to be competitive."
Mohamed, a South African, said he had identified what technical adjustments would be needed to adjust to conditions likely to be encountered during the WCQ. "We know the wickets there are hard and dry with good bounce, and we need to work more on our backfoot shots."
Uganda is in Group A, arguably the stronger of the two groups, alongside Canada, Ireland, Namibia, Oman and Scotland. They play their first match against Nambia on April 1.
It is grand to see Uganda really setting out their stall for the WCQs (ICC Trophy). Fifteen years ago this month, when the competition was held in Nairobi, Uganda weren't even there except for the warm-up games, and Kenya were finalists. Now the two countries are more or less at level pegging. Kenya's decline - alas - appears to have coincided with Uganda's resurgence. It's just a pity they're not meeting in the same group.
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