At the end of February 2024 I joined a part of nine people from the charity Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB) on a fortnight’s visit to Uganda to help with cricket development in East Africa.
I’m now 72 years old having played my first game of cricket at the age of 10. That’s 62 years of enjoyment and involvement with the greatest game in the world. So when I got sent an advert from CWB via Essex Cricket in the Community it immediately struck me as being something I should get involved with. Putting something back is an overused cliche but totally appropriate in this case. I’ve been involved in coaching young cricketers at my home club Hutton CC in Essex including the ECB’s All Stars and Dynamos programmes. This was exacly what CWB was looking for; skills and experience of introducing young people to the basics of cricket. I found this via an on-line interview in autumn 2023. I was sold and offered a place.
We paid our own fare, were required to raise £1,000 in funds and made a commitment to a training weekend in Coventry. Then it was a meeting at Heathrow on February 24th and an overnight flight to Entebbe via Rwanda.
What followed was a fortnight of sunshine, thunderstorms, intense activity, enthusiastic kids, competitive PE teachers, batting, bowling, fielding and rapid fire competitions. Over 13 days we coached a total of 7,500 young people at 40 schools and worked with 80 members of staff. The idea was that we’d give a basic introduction to the youngsters, hopefully get them enthused for the game and forge links between the school staff and the local development staff from the Uganda Cricket Association. Schools were meant to send us around 60 pupils per session – every single one sent more and one sent the entire 200+ student body. Chaotic and marvellous at the same time.
Cricket is taking off in Uganda – the men’s senior team will play for the first time in the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean at the end of May – so there is huge potential but a lack of facilities and basic equipment holds back development. Our job was to plant some seeds, donate bags of bats, balls and stumps and trust that some of the boys and girls get the cricket bug for real.
If you want more details on CWB and my Uganda trip please go to www.cwbblogs.com/uganda24.
Jim Lynch
