By Innocent Ndawula
A collection of board members, coaches, former players, secretariat officials and committee members met at the Copper Chimney Restaurant in Lugogo on Saturday, April 13th to contribute to a new strategy aimed at turning around the gentleman’s game in Uganda for good.
In terms of attendance, the numbers were much better than the CEO Martin Ondeko expected, and the composition of members was encouragingly representative as it has a good blend of young and old, male and female, cricket diehards and strategists. The sessions, spearheaded by Commercial Value Group's Ronald Wakabi, were conducted to steer creativity and collaboration across the board.
Most interesting were the group work discussions and the practical ideas they generated.
Chairman Bashir ‘Badu’ Ansasiira remarked that mission of Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) is to introduce the game to more people, providing opportunities for every boy or girl who wants to take up the sport and play it to the highest level, providing year-round programs at every level to drive success, inspiring unity and diversity.
Four main pillars
UCA is looking at focusing on four main pillars which are; Growing the game, International Success, Operational efficiency and Making the game more popular. These are generally complementary to each other.
For growing the game, UCA is looking at making it easy for any one to be introduced to cricket mainly through primary schools and community cricket, having a unified curriculum that ensures all learners grasp the basics of the game regardless of their physical location, aligning the work of development officers to the strategy and ensuring more cricket is played within schools.
UCA is counting on clubs to be the hub of the sport and the objective is to have sustainable structures, improve commercial appeal and diversify revenue opportunities for clubs.
To achieve international success, the longer-term objective is to have a competitive group of cricketers that would create selection migraines for the coach, exposing players to more competitive cricket and putting in place facilities and training modules to enhance the physical, technical, tactical and psychological conditioning of players so that they’re in the best possible state to win matches.
Expected deliverables
Operational efficiency is critical to the realisation of the strategy and UCA is looking at having a structure in place to support the strategy, aligning every employees’ deliverables to the strategy, increasing revenue streams, managing expenses and creating better synergy between the board, the secretariat, committees, the fraternity and external stakeholders.
Cricket is a popular game world over and UCA wants to increase the game’s appeal within Uganda. As a well-run organisation, with thriving development programs, a motivated fraternity and winning national teams, UCA wants cricket to make Ugandans extremely proud. Every Ugandan should be identifying with the values and fun of cricket as a game.
To ensure the plan is implemented, an accounting process is being put in place where all UCA staff and committees have quarterly reviews to assess performance. Twice a year, the CEO Ondeko will give an update to the board and fraternity through a balance scorecard.
A follow up sessions is expected in two weeks to introduce the scorecard to the fraternity and an implementation plan.
