Three Ugandan semi-professionals, Kenneth Kamyuka (19), Lawrence Ssematimba (18) and Frank Nsubuga (19) returned home on 25/03/02 with glittering colours after their eight-month stay in South Africa.

The trio have been in South Africa since last August playing professional cricket for Johannesburg based Tasmania Cricket Club. The club finished in the second slot during the domestic league and the contributions of the youngsters have been greatly credited.

Kamyuka returned home with three match balls, a South African honour given to him for his rare wicket taking skills.

The fast arm bowler claimed three seven-wicket hauls in three different particular matches playing for his club Tasmanians CC in a South African domestic league.

Kamyuka, the Ugandan Mini World Cup hero in Canada last June together with Ssematimba and Nsubuga were warmly received by the Ugandan cricket fraternity.

They will immediately start drills with the national side ahead of the ICC Associates tournament in Malaysia slated for May 23-26.

On the local scene, Wanderers Cricket Club added another trophy in their cabinet when they beat Tornado CC by 31 runs in the finals of the Mawanda Cup on 10/03/02.

The side that boasts of national captain John Lubia, international Tendo Mbazzi alongside up coming youngsters Michael Ndiko, Joshua Mwanja, Hamza Saleh and Kenneth Legesi defied all odds to play unbeaten in the knock out tournament.

Seven local clubs turned up for the competition and Wanderers (a club for Uganda's cricket legend Sam Walusimbi, father to Tendo Mbazzi) turned victorious after taking the Luswata Cup in February.

To reach the finals Wanderers thumped JACC, before dethroning defending champions Destroyers in the semi- finals.

Their victory against Tornado (2000 league winners and Luswata Cup winners 2001) was the most prominent for the side in the last five years.

Tornado has five international stars in Benjamin Musoke, Richard Mwami, Joel Olweny, Henry Okecho and Keith Legesi all of whom featured in the ICC Mini World Cup held in Canada last year.

The Club competitions resume on April 14 with the annual Bank of Baroda league taking place on the three national grounds.

In the same developments, over 3000 (three thousand) pupils from 96 primary schools turned up to participate in the inaugural Mini cricket festivals from 14 Ugandan districts. The district and regional competitions ended over the past two weekends.

The event sponsored by MTN Uganda and Stanbic Bank will be on climax with the winning nineteen schools tussling it out at national level on April 6 at Lugogo national cricket oval.

The categories for competition are under 10 boys and girls and under 13 boys and girls.

Also on the domestic scene, the inaugural professionals' league continued to flourish with another interesting game between the Administrators and the Journalists on March 16.

The league played twice a month is aimed at involving inactive cricketers in the game and allowing those that retired to keep playing cricket through such circles.

The journalists' Media Cricket Club (MCC) established late last year, showed steady improvement in their game despite losing to the Administrators CC by 52 runs. The Engineers and Expatriates are the other teams in the Saturday Cricket League.

Meanwhile, the British High Commissioner Tom Phillips and the acting South Africa High Commissioner Mohamed Casimjee participated in the Commonwealth day festive match al Lugogo oval (Kampala) on Sunday 10/03/2002.

The duo played telling roles for the Commonwealth XI despite a 30 run loss to the Uganda veterans XI. Fred Massade spurred Uganda's old folks to victory after claiming four vital wickets for sixteen runs in seven overs. Mohammed Casimjee ensured a quick 29 after hitting Uganda's former national captain John Nagenda (1970's) three fours before he was trapped Lbw by veteran Kibuka Musoke.

In other developments, Uganda is set to host the inaugural East Africa under 17 boys and open women tournament slated for April 9-13 here in Kampala.

Hosts Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have all confirmed participation ahead of the tournament.

Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) has also maintained the tradition of hosting Kenyan league giants Swamibapa CC for a series of matches during the Easter holiday. A 25-man contingent led by veteran Tom Tikolo jets in this Thursday (28/03/02) and will play a match against the Uganda U-19 team before taking on the senior squad the next day. This will be a good test for the national squad currently preparing for the ICC Associates tournament in May.

© ICC 2002