Ansasira Bashir who is popularly known as Badu has been at the helm of Uganda Cricket for the last two years, he has led the first board made up of only member clubs a result of the constitutional review in 2016. This new arrangement increased the number of board members from six to nine members a move that many thought would increase red tape and also delay decision making.
However, two years on Badu and his board have managed to stay afloat, create new relationships and also usher into office a new CEO. We caught up with Badu to talk about the highs and lows of the last two years plus looking beyond 2019.
Achievements
The last two years have not been easy even though I had some experience as a board member most of the other board members were new and we were also working in a new environment, so the spotlight was on us and how were going to lead.
I will mention improving the image of cricket as one of achievements, previously people had deemed us to be a very proud fraternity but for the last two years we have been humble enough to ask for help when we needed it.
This improved brand image has come with other good things like sponsors such as Unimoni and Endiro Coffee. In the past while we struggled to find people to partner with us Endiro and Unimoni chose to grow with us as we promote cricket in the country.
So doing one thing well has made us win in so many other areas, therefore the result of something small done well has benefited cricket in Uganda.
To connect the same point we got on board a commercial partner The Commercial Value Group (CVG) who have done a great job in promoting cricket in Uganda. These guys are investing their own money to grow the game through communication meaning they have seen potential in cricket. Right now am certain they are not getting anything but I know once the game reaches a certain pinnacle they will reap dividends.
As a team we also leveraged on our contacts outside Uganda to better expose our national team players, we have made very strong connections with Sanjay Farm in India, Oman Cricket Board, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bankstown in Australia.
Our relationship with the community in Bankstown as continued to grow, we were fortunate to have Eric Kamara in Australia who has been able to strengthen our ties with the people of Bankstown. We appointed him as an ambassador for Uganda Cricket to Bankstown and he should help make the relationship with Bankstown Sports Club permanent and this will benefit cricket for a very long time.
Early in 2018 the Qatar Cricket board sponsored our visit to Qatar and Sanjay Farm hosted us for two weeks in India, all UCA needed to do on both occasions was to get the team there. Saudi Arabia came down here to play a couple of warm up games with us and we are still in close contact with them for us to visit. These trips were all in line with getting our players the exposure needed to compete at the highest level.
We can’t take for granted the support we have gotten from the fraternity, in the past we have had a fractured fraternity but the last two years have been different. We have gotten support from the elders in the fraternity right down to the young generation. Everyone wants to get involved in developing the game as well as making sure that we remain accountable to the fraternity.
As the fraternity as long as we are all for cricket development we shall enjoy the rewards together, the Asian community has a big influence on our cricket and we have closely worked with them for the last two years to look for opportunities for growth.
On the financial side I mentioned we have improved sponsorship and actually we see an increment in our ICC financial score cards from 88888 to 8888. The big contributor being our non ICC income that has grown from 535k to 680k
Therefore those have been some of our achievements and we are looking at consolidating these gains in 2019 and beyond.
Challengers
We had set ourselves a target of at least getting a home for cricket but finding a great place to purchase has been a challenge. We have been looking for the last two years but have failed to find suitable land to fit our budget and needs. However, the committee continues to work on this process we want to get the deal for the fraternity that ensures value for money is given.
Our board also inherited some debts especially the bank loan on the land and a huge PAYE bill to URA which we had to settle while also having to run activities but our finance team led by Mr Paul Nsibuka has been able to keep us in good books and I can confidently say we should be in a better financial position in 2019.
The size of the board meant that we took long to make decisions with deferring views and decisions. However, there was more strength in numbers as we had more wise heads to consult on key issues as whereas keep ourselves accountable to the member clubs via their delegates.
Failures
Our greatest failure has been development, and as chairman I will take a big the most blame because we put most of our energy into other things an gave development little attention. We have development activities running but the quality has not amazing.
While we promote the national team we can’t forget our feeder for these national teams and I have instructed our development committee to come up with 3 year plan that we should stick to going forward.
We had failures on the international scene with the national team in Oman but those failures can’t be any of the players. Our job as a board is to create an environment where national players excel on the international level and we shall focus on this in our next mandate.
2019 and beyond
Yes of course am seeking re-election for another 2 year term which will be my final. We spent the first two years doing a lot of housekeeping but since we have done most that its now time for us to take off.
Our focus for the next two years is quality development and success of the national team on the international scene.
The U19 team will be going to Namibia early in the year where we hope they can exorcise the demons of 2017 and qualify for the World Cup.
We have the Africa T20 World Cup Qualifiers to be hosted here in Kampala which will give our local fans a chance for them to watch their team and hopefully the boys can do us proud.
On development we are looking at improving our quality, we have had focus on numbers but for the next two years we want to see quality coming through these development channels. We shall extend support to existing development initiatives such as the Soroti cricket academy, Nyakasura, Kasese group managed by Isaneez to ensure that we help them produce the next cricket cranes players.
We should also lay turf playing surfaces in Kabale, Tororo, Soroti and the Karamoja region and upgrade Jinja to the grass wicket.
We have budgeted for these development activities and the fruits should be born even past our next two years. What we start now will benefit those to come after our time is done.
On the international scene we want to leverage on our gains with our partners, we already have an opportunity to send six of our young boys to go to an academy in India, Sanjay has invited us for a trip to India at the end of this month for our national team, Omtex is going to support us with affordable uniforms for the national teams, we also have an opportunity to find some great coaches in India to help us structure our development pathways.
Our cricket home is a big priority, we have a projected saving of over USD 50k, plus some other credible sources that can allow us to finance the home of cricket project. Since we were able to secure the land title for our land in Kawuku we can easily access a bank loan to be able to finance developing our home.
On the administration level we have a new CEO and we want to empower Martin to grow as a top executive, he should be able to take us to the next level as an organization and while we take the blunt from the fraternity he needs to own the growth of the organization. Therefore as a board we shall stick to strategy while he continues to manage the affairs of the association and raising the profile of the game in the country.
Our overall objective is to create an association that should make all cricketers proud, those that come after us should find a rolling ball that is moving towards growth. What we do now like I mentioned earlier should allow those that come after us to succeed and spend little time fighting fires but concentrate most of the resources on growing the profile of cricket in Uganda.
Thanks Chairman for your time and we wish you all the best on 26th we shall follow up this interview after the elections.