The meeting between Karago CC and Nyakasura will be historical for the being the first time game is played in Western Uganda. Cricket in western Uganda has been growing at a fast pace especially due to the genuine efforts of UCA and CWB but whose focus has been on mini cricket.
However, the growth of mini cricket has been in tandem with the development of hard ball cricket as well with Nyakasura playing the lead in the last four years.
Nyakasura was the first team from western Uganda to play in the national league and on their 1st attempt they did admirably well finishing a season high third narrowly missing promotion to Div 2 on Net Run Rate. The first time success of Nyakasura led to the creation of Karago CC so as to give more opportunity to more players and also accomodate those that finish school but needed to keep playing.
Both sides have had to endure long travel from their Fortportal base every weekend to face opposition in Kampala but this time they get a chance to have their derby in their own back yard.
Nyakasura the more experienced of both sides has lost its three games while the new comers have not done any better losing two of their three games. However, considering that these sides know each other and there will be no love lost among the players.
Both sides are handled by Ivan Thawithemwira and despite the results not looking pretty for either sides he is aware of which areas need to be worked on. Ivan spoke to us from the team base in Fortportal
Nyakasura has played three games and lost all,they should have won against Aziz Damani Development but their inexperience got the better of them giving away what should have been their first win of the season. Karago has not done any better having played three and lost two with one no result. The results have not been that great so far because they could not get practice at school since it was raining daily, and it showed in the results. However, we had a holiday camp and the recent tour by the Rwanda School select side also gave us a chance to iron things out.
The massive will be a chance for either side to break their duck in the league, despite Nyakasura being the slight favorites due to their experience there are no favorites in a derby.