Cricket Cranes Head Coach Abhay Sharma has left his role effective immediately as the failed T20 World Cup qualifying campaign claims its first casualty.
Abhay Sharma took on the role in April last year and led the team to the T20 World Cup in the West Indies but a year and a half into his three-year contract, both parties have agreed to part ways.
Sharma took on the role at a time when the Cricket Cranes were at their peak after a successful Qualification campaign in Namibia; therefore, anyone coming after that was going to be judged by the same standard.
Despite Uganda qualifying for the World Cup for the first time, the standard had been set that we should be a World Cup team in every qualification campaign.
The goal was set high and Sharma needed to find his own that would deliver the same success. A couple of players who had been part of the success in Namibia had moved on, some had lost form, so new faces were added to the side to complement what had remained. However, despite Uganda being on a 17-match unbeaten run, when it came down to the games that mattered, they were caught out.
The loss to Zimbabwe was somewhat expected, given that they were the home side, but the defeat to Tanzania was the nail in the coffin. The loss meant that Uganda had no chance of even reaching the semifinals and eventually they ended up finishing fifth at the qualifiers. A disappointing result for a team that tasted World Cup success in 2024.
The coach ultimately took responsibility for the results and chose to step away so that the side could look ahead to the next qualification cycle that starts next year for the 2028 World Cup.
In his defence, he must have felt he didn’t have enough time to make lemonade out of lemons, despite the failure in the T20 World Cup campaign. Uganda did well in the first two rounds of the Challenge League and are in a great position to finish among the Top 2 sides in Group B.
The Cricket Cranes head to Kigali, Rwanda, to defend their ILT20 Cup in a few days and will need to find an interim coach immediately.
