by Andrew Oryada, Ronald Ssekandi
KAMPALA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- In many African countries, Cricket which has always been a back stage sport is increasingly taking center stage. Schools are now urging youngsters to take up the sport.
Some African countries like South Africa have already reached the international stage while others are striving to make their way up.
Uganda is now one of the African countries battling to progress to Division 2.
At the start of the 2017 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cricket League Division 3/ World Cup qualifier Championship here on Tuesday, Uganda takes on Canada.
In this tournamanet, Uganda will have to take on other five countries, the United States, Oman, Malaysia, Singapore and Canada to be able to qualify for the next stage.
While this may be an uphill task, experts argue that there should be an acknowlegment of how Uganda and Cricket in Africa has been able to reach this stage.
The experts some of whom are attending the ICC championship here are convinced that Africa has made much more progress towards the development of the sport.
Henry Osinde, a technical member of the Canadanian team, but also a former Ugandan national player told Xinhua that he is impressed with the strides African nations are making.
"When I was based and used to play in Africa, things were a little different but today so much has changed even in relation to attitude and the development on the sport on the continent," Osinde said.
"I am happy to see several African countries like South Africa playing at the highest level, while the likes of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana and Uganda are also getting better and better. Cricket is getting better in Africa because there is more attention given to it now," Madhuisinh Jesrani, the Oman Cricket Association Secretary told Xinhua in an interview.
Former Kenya national team player and now coach of the Ugandan team, Steve Tikolo attributes the positive strides made in Cricket to lots of work done by the respective associations and a lot of input from the ICC.
"Most of the different member associations have worked hard in building capacity and having proper development targets in place," said Tikolo.
Justine Ligyalingi, the Chief Executive officer of the Uganda Cricket Association and tournament Director of the ongoing ICC championship here said setting up structures and following systems is a factor that can not be ignored in the development of the sport.
The experts argued that all this has been achieved despite the low funding towards the development of the sport.
