BY FAITH MUNEZERO
There is a widely and quite erroneously held belief that cricket is just another game
Prince Philip , 1975 in Wisden: Cricketers’ Almanack, ‘The Pleasures of Cricket
I had never really watched any of the Jazz Safari Men’s league matches ever since I got to know about them, roughly 2 months ago. Before last Sunday, the only men’s game I had ever watched was between Canada and Uganda back in May 2017 when we hosted the #WCL3 tournament, a tournament that unfortunately got us relegated to Division 4. This painful loss was later avenged this year during the #WCL4 in Malaysia where the Cricket Cranes not only got to lift the winners’ trophy, but also earn their spot back to Division 3!
Irfan "Afridi" Mohommed's meaty sixes were a joy to watch
So one fine Sunday morning last weekend, a few minutes after 11am, I broke the cycle. I made my way to Kyambogo where KICC was taking on Challengers CC. I had longed to experience the Men’s League beyond just the match summaries on social media and hearsay from close friends in the sport.
After church and about 30 minutes’ travel, I arrived at the oval both excited and timid. The match had already begun and in order to get up to up to speed as fast as possible, I approached a lone lad on the sidelines. With the common courtesies out of the way, a few questions and two overs later, I was up to date on the scores, teams, batsmen and even who won the toss (Challengers, in case you were wondering).
Like a newbie on social media, I took to twitter to share my new found knowledge with the digital community. But with each passing tweet, I lost seconds of precious dropped catches, flying boundaries and close call run outs! After 18 overs of indecision and agony, I threw in the proverbial towel and decided to fix my eyes on the match. However, just 7 overs later I gave in to the urge, but this time I found my rhythm – tweeting only during change of overs, wickets or boundary shots.
The Journey (Briefly)
In the past two months, I took it upon myself to get acquainted with all things Ugandan cricket, and I am slightly overwhelmed! From the international matches by the national teams to the ongoing league games, to the just concluded night cricket…I wondered which rock I had been living under! You can imagine how surprised I was to hear a new club name each week, I still haven’t memorized them all, but I am learning and soon I will probably give commentators a run for their money!
So, by the time I got to Kyambogo, I was inwardly rooting for KICC because, well, it’s the only team I knew there at the time! I however knew of some of the Challengers players, though I only found out where they applied their trade. KICC lost, but the delightful experience I left with overshadowed any loss I would have felt.
The Match Highlights
The thing about men’s cricket is that it’s so fast paced and entertaining. (Do I hear a murmur somewhere?) Yes, entertaining! There’s so much adrenaline displayed from the batting to the bowling to the fielding. I saw a Challengers player dive for his crease just seconds before he was judged not out for a run out appeal! I have seen dives before (thank you Neymar) but his was one of the most amazing I had ever seen up close!
There was David Wabwire’s short ball to Suleiman that reminded me of a warning a friend had given me about that type of a ball to a sober batsman – they can be very costly. The ease with which Suleman dispatched the short ball was breathtaking! Then there was that magnificent bouncer from Suleiman towards Asadu that had me wincing like I was in there instead of him! If I faced one like that, I would probably have curled up like a millipede in defense mode! Cricket is definitely an athletic sport.
Before the match, I had always believed that most bowlers are pace bowlers (for the men at least) but the minute Davis Karashani bowled his first ball, that mindset shattered into a hundred pieces. Blinded by the pace I had seen from the Challengers and previous KICC bowlers, I was honestly shocked and waited to see how the batsmen fared against him. Ball after ball after ball yielded no runs, and indeed, fourth ball in and a wicket was felled!
But my absolute highlight of the match was Arthur Kyobe’s time at the crease, hands down the most entertaining part of the match! The third man in, he gave the KICC a run for their money, contributing a massive 84 runs to the total 183 score the Challengers put up with 13 fours and 3 meaty sixes. Before his reign was stopped 16 runs short of a ton, the 41 balls he faced were filled with a number of shockingly dropped catches that KICC dearly paid for with boundary after boundary.
Parting shots
I couldn’t have picked a better match to initiate myself back into the warm embraces of cricket. It was a cocktail of excitement and agony, joy and dismay; laughter and displeasure all rolled up into one. Some of the best things I saw, was not just on the pitch but off it. The humor amongst the teams, the gents seated together in groups mixed blue and green or green and blue, happily chatting over a meal and a bottle of water, soda or juice; the cordial handshakes at the end of the match and the interactions with fans that came to watch, of which I was one…it all made me wonder, isn’t this what cricket is about? Shouldn’t many more people get to experience this? I’m still discovering a lot about the Gentleman’s sport and so far, I am loving what I see.
If you are a Ugandan cricket fan, you have probably checked out either Cricket Uganda (@CricketUganda on twitter) or UG Cricket (@Ugcricket) social media pages at least once. There are always up to date with any upcoming matches, cricket news, score summaries or your weekly ‘Man Crush Monday’ feature. If you haven’t yet, beera mu class!
Through these two online platforms that I connected with the cricket fraternity here and beyond. From Zimbabwe to Netherlands for the lady cricketers and from Malaysia to Rwanda for the men, I have attended every one of the Cricket Cranes and Lady Cricket cranes matches from the comfort of my home. I owe my now revived cricket passion to them and hopefully, this fervor catches on like a wild fire. I mean, how do you think I got to know about the Jazz Safari Men’s League matches?