Ahead of the Uganda Cranes first CHAN game against Algeria at Namboole a big promise was made to the boys.

According to Clive Kyazze, the President of the Republic of Uganda Yoweri Museveni, promised 1.2 billion Uganda Shillings for every win that the team registers at the tournament.

This news brought a lot of mixed reactions from the fans more so those that are more into other sports.

To put that amount into perspective for you, if Uganda won all their group stage games, they would walk away with 4.8 billion with more games to play.

For every win that the team gets, each player and officials shall walk away with more than 30 million and if they do well, each could make more than 100 million for the entire tournament.

Recently, the Uganda Rugby Cranes were participating in the Rugby Africa Cup hosted at Namboole.

Many fans weren’t pleased with the team’s performance, some citing the lack of motivation from the players.

Prior to this, we saw the former Rugby Cranes Captain, Ivan Magomu, openly talking about the Player welfare and how it needed to be bettered.

Just the last week, the Gazelles were also in action, playing at the continental championship.

They were in Abidjan were the Afrobasket was taking place and they finished as number 8.

For the Gazelles, just like the Rugby Cranes, nothing was promised, as of my knowledge.

And one would wonder, what if something was promised, would we have seen much better performances or perhaps higher finishes?

If you are a player, you play for a bigger purpose but sometimes you need some extra motivation.

On top of all the preparation that the Zimbabwe Sables had made, their President gave them some extra $100,000 as an incentive, during the tournament.

This helped them carry on even harder and they eventually won and got even more rewards.

The Nigeria Women’s Basketball Team players were each given $100,000 and a plot of land.

If you ask me, what did the Rugby Cranes get?

I have no idea, but I doubt it is something they can flaunt about with.

Same thing with the Gazelles. You go and play, but there’s not much that changes for you. There’s not much to show for it.

While on NBS Sport, the Vice President Administration said that the average basketball player in Uganda gets ugx 350,000.

If you calculated, that’s less than 4 million Uganda Shillings in a year.

Mind you, these players are the same that compete and aspire to play for the Gazelles.

What’s the difference between a person that plays on the National team and those that don’t?

If you ask me, those on the National team get some small cash, but for tournaments.

If you don’t participate in a tournament, you don’t get anything.

If a person works hard and gets an opportunity to play for the National team at any level, it is only fair that they reap as much as they can get.

It is an opportunity that comes once in a while and one has to maximize it.

No one is against football getting these promises and big budgets. If this was consistent for many sports, then we’d all be one happy family.

However, at the moment, it seems like football is that one child that is well taken care of while the others seem to be neglected.

If the Gazelles were promised 1.2 billion, you’d see blood and sweat on the floor.

For any basketball player currently in Uganda, getting more than 40 million would change their lives.

To be honest, the money is there. The question is, how can basketball or Rugby or anyother sport position themselves to get such promises?

That’s where the work of the administration comes in and if they play their cards right, who knows maybe our athletes shall start reaping more.

The Silverbacks shall be playing at the Afrobasket in Angola as they look to make a top 4 finish.

Can a cash bonus help motivate them even more?