As we have always been reporting, the Uganda She Cranes played out their hearts in the just concluded Netball World Cup in England and ended up with an all-time best 7th position in Uganda’s netball history.
Over the past five years or so, our brave women have been improving year after year finishing 8th at the 2015 Netball World Cup in Australia and winning back to back Netball Africa Championships in 2017 and 2018. In addition to that, Uganda hosted and won the Netball World University championship last year.
All this success has come from relentless effort from mostly the players and coach who have continued to operate under hard-pressing conditions due to under-funding of the Netball Federation by government.
In the 2013 Netball Africa Championships, our girls traveled to Malawi by, wait for it, road. Yes. Our girls played through the fatigue and managed to reach the semi finals of that tournament.
Since then, Uganda has been Africa Netball Champions twice, gone to the Netball World Cup twice and has already got an automatic qualification in the upcoming world showpiece in 2023 in South Africa since we are now ranked 6th internationally.
It is quite disturbing how a sport that has been more successful for Uganda internationally can be so underfunded. On their return from England, the women were hosted by Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni and awarded Shs1m for their contribution.
It’s not wise to compare that to what the Uganda Cranes received for reaching the last 16 in AFCON because it would be just jokes.
With this success notwithstanding the lack of adequate funds, imagine how much the She Cranes would achieve if they were adequately funded. Plane tickets and hotels booked on time, allowances and remuneration heavily improved and all the other gaps ironed out. It may not be done, but just imagine that.