Cricket Cranes were flagged off for their Tour to Namibia for the Castle Lite Series that will run from July 4 – 13 with the team playing four T20i and two ODI games.
Namibia is the highest-ranked associate nation in the World in 13th place, 11 places ahead of Uganda ranked 24th.
The Eagles of Namibia will most definitely offer a strong challenge for the Cricket Cranes who recently won the Continent Cup T20 tournament.
Cricket Cranes’ last two visits showed that the team is making progress after a 5-0 drubbing was followed up by a 3-2 loss last year.
There are only two changes to the squad that won the Continent Cup T20 with Roger Mukasa and Sirjje Nsubuga missing out as Ronald Lutaaya and Juma Miyagi coming back into the team.
Mukasa had an excellent Tour to Nairobi and was one of the consistent batters for the Cricket Cranes but the Tour to Namibia came so soon for his hamstring. The return of Miyagi meant that Siraje Nsubuga had to make a way despite making an impressive debut in Nairobi.
The plan is to make sure that we have alot of continuity in the side. Last year we lost a couple of players at crucial times and we want to have a large squad for the amount of cricket we have to play this year.
Therefore we have kept Obuya in the side to give him more opportunities in more tough conditions. We have shown growth on every visit to Namibia and we hope to put on a better show this time around.
Laurence Mahatlane, Cricket Cranes Head Coach
Namibia will be hosting the finals of the T20 World Cup Qualifiers in November this year and this trip should help the core of the side to get familiar with the conditions.
The Final 14: Brian Masaba (C), Kenneth Waiswa, Juma Miyagi, Ronald Lutaaya, Simon Ssesazi, Obuya Robinson, Dinesh Nakrani, Alpesh Ramjani, Riazat Ali Shah, Henry Ssenyondo, Cyrus Kakuru, Frank Nsubuga
