Story by Lenon Kangume

The Uganda Women’s Cricket Team will be participating in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2024 which is an International Cricket tournament that serves as the final step of the qualification process for the Women’s T20 World Cup.

Eight teams will be competing in this tournament after earning their spots through regional qualifiers. The Victoria Pearls qualified for this tournament second placed behind the Lady Chevrons from Zimbabwe in the Africa Qualifiers which took place in Entebbe, in December 2023.

Sri Lanka and Ireland moved back to the Global Qualifiers after missing out on automatic qualification for the 2024 T20 World Cup 2024 due to their finishing positions in the previous World Cup held in South Africa. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format in the two team groups, as the top two in each group head for play-offs to determine the two countries headed for the showdown in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Uganda last featured in a Global Qualifier Tournament in 2018 where they finished 6th out of 8 teams in the Netherlands. The Victoria Pearls have got an opportunity at a big international set despite a mixture of results at their recently concluded tournament in Ghana for the All-Africa Games in March.

Uganda’s technical side has had the ladies undergo training in preparation especially to improve the fitness of players by introducing a fielding, strength, and conditioning coach. The ladies also traveled to India for a training tour.  

A change of guard was done as Janet Mbabazi was named the side’s new skipper with Ritah Musamali deputizing her. In a press statement, Janet promised to deliver good cricket and results in her reign as captain. The Victoria Pearls have been excellent in the bowling department while there has been less desire for their batting in recent times. The Victoria Pearls will experience a new condition, playing under the lights for the first time in their careers in Abu Dhabi. 

Proscovia Alako is the only inclusion replacing Immaculate Nandera signifying the selectors’ intent to solidify the batting whilst the rest of the squad remains the same from their training tour to India.

Uganda was drawn into Group A with constants like Scotland and Thailand together with the USA. All eyes will be on a high-flying Sri Lanka led by one of the current top performers in the Women’s game Chamari Athapaththu. Group B has got an ambitious Zimbabwe, Ireland a tournament favorite, Netherlands, UAE who showed a lot of class during the Asia Qualifier and Vanuatu. 

The global qualifiers will run from 21st April to 7th May, 2024. The Victoria Pearls will have to use this stage as they try to qualify for the World Cup as a stepping stone for their future endeavors as the game continues to grow in Women in Uganda.