The 2019 Cricket season will open this weekend with a Divisional T20 tournament.
The new change in format is to allow national team players prepare for the Africa T20 World Cup Qualifier.
The Divisional T20 tournament will be played across the three cricket divisions with each division playing its own mini competition, which means that there will be three different winners at the end of the tournament.
Division One will have the league champions Aziz Damani as the main team to battle but they will face fierce competition from last season runner’s up Kutchi Tigers and a re-energised Challengers.
Challengers have added the young talent Zephaniah Arinatitwe, U19 Captain Frank Akankwasa and Perry Wazombe to Hamu Kayondo, Arthur Kyobe, and the fierce David Wabwire.
Last season’s T20 finalists KICC cant be left out of the favorites as they were busy in the offseason adding new players to the side. Lawrence Ssempijja and Simon Ssesazi joined from Ceylon Lions, and the Hanumant Katkar led side also added Deus Muhumuza and Lawrence Ssematimba from Tornado Bee.
Newly promoted Tornado and Patidar will use the T20 tournament to familiarise themselves with their new environment but have only an outside chance in the competition.
Tornado Bee mainstays in Div 1 for the last six years are the mix but they will clearly be hurt by the departures of Roger Mukasa (to Damani) as well as Deus Muhumuza and Lawrence Ssematimba who joined KICC.
The biggest competition will be in Division 2 with relegated sides Ceylon Lions and Premier signing a lot of players ahead of the new season.
Premier is a different side from the one that labored in Division One last year with the recruitment of players, mostly, from Patidar.
Ceylon Lions have made the biggest investment of all Division 2 teams to assemble a very young talented side. Alex Obanda the Kenyan international is the stand out player for Ceylon Lions and he will be tasked with anchoring a young side that can benefit from his experience.
The Division Two knockout will be the only one played on a group format, the eight teams have been put into two groups with Group A having Budo, Avengers, Jinja SSS
Division Three will also be played on a round robin format with new comes Strikers development side taking on Soroti blazers, JACC, Nile, Nyakasura
The other new development is the use of Ndejje Cricket Oval as an option for teams to play. Due to the limited time before the grounds are no longer available due to the qualifiers tournament, Uganda Cricket needed to find alternative grounds for use and Ndejje was the only option close enough to Kampala.
Action starts on Saturday with Ceylon Lions facing off with ACC at the Lugogo Oval.
UCA MEN’S T20 DIVISIONAL TOURNAMENT
Date: Saturday 23rd February 2019
10:00 am | Africa CC Vs Ceylon | Lugogo Oval
UCA MEN’S T20 DIVISIONAL TOURNAMENT
Sunday 24th February 2019
10:00 am | Wanderers Vs Ceylon Lions | Lugogo Oval
10:00 am | Challengers Vs KICC | Kyambogo Oval
10:00 am | SKLPS Vs Patidar | Entebbe Oval
10:00 am | Africa Vs Premier | Budo Oval
10:00 am | Jinja SSS Vs Damani Dev’t Team | Jinja Oval
