Cricket Uganda unveiled Steve Tikolo as the new coach of the Cricket Cranes and he takes over from Abhay Sharma who left his role in November 2025 after an unsuccessful T20 World Cup qualification campaign.
Tikolo returns to familiar ground having had stints with the team twice in 2016 and 2019, the first as a batting coach and then as Head Coach.
The third coming for Steve Tikolo comes at the time the team is looking to make gains in the both the T20 format and 50 over format.
There will be more scrutiny on his assignment this time round and only results will definitely keep him in the job.
The Cricket Cranes will be one of the favourites at the next T20 World Cup Qualifiers especially with Zimbabwe out of the way, the path to the World Cup in 2028 in New Zealand and Australia will start in Nigeria later this year for the Cricket Cranes before moving to the finals in 2027.
Zimbabwe, by virtue of finishing among the top 8 at the 2026 World Cup, qualified for the next edition which opens up a slot for a new team from Africa which the likes of Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria will be chasing at the Africa finals.
An opportunity to be at a second World Cup for the Cricket Cranes will be a non negotiable for Tikolo, especially when there is an opening.
His other key assignment will be the journey to ODI cricket that has eluded the Cricket Cranes for long. They have come close in the past but in the present they stand a great chance, the Cricket Cranes lead the Challenge League B table and will only need two wins at the final round in Tanzania in August to qualify among the top two.
The Global Qualifiers where the top four sides earn ODI cricket will be the watershed moment for Cricket Uganda but that mountain will be hard to climb for Uganda.
Tikolo will need to find the balance as he builds from ground up, the playing unit has gone through some changes with new young players given opportunities starting with the Namibia series next week.
The timing was good for both since he had run down his contract with Nigeria Cricket Federation but in Uganda, he comes to a team that is looking upwards and therefore results will get him more mileage than performances.
Tikolo was handed a three year deal that will see him in charge of the team till 2029. His first assignment will be the Cricket Cranes tour to Namibia from March 16-26.