This is a T20 World Cup of a few noteworthy firsts. For the first time ever, American audiences (though a large majority will probably be Southeast Asians) will get an intimate glimpse of cricket’s superstars at the biggest stage as the initial part of the marquee event — US and West Indies are co-hosts — passes through the plush streets of New York, Texas and Florida.
The ninth edition of the T20 World Cup is also the first time that 20 teams are taking part. That means this tournament is longer in duration than any previous T20 World Cup. While the shortest format is the most amenable to the grand endeavour of growing the game to newer territories, the expansion to 20 teams — they have been placed in four groups of five each — is likely to come at the cost of some drab, one-sided contests early on. For that to not be the case, the nine Associate members participating will have to punch considerably above their weight.
Widening the cricketing landscape are newcomers in Uganda, Canada and United States. While the United States’ entry is by virtue of being co-hosts, Uganda and Canada have made the cut from regional qualifiers in Africa and Americas respectively.
Uganda’s journey to the global stage is particularly heartwarming, for never has a team from the East African country, rife with poverty and human rights issues, played a World Cup in any sport at the senior level. It was in November last year that the historic feat was accomplished, sparking scenes of unbridled joy, song and dance among the Ugandan players that circulated widely on social media. The qualification was thoroughly deserved — they finished second to Namibia in the campaign — once they were able to get the better of Zimbabwe and Kenya.
As skipper Brian Masaba said then, three years of planning went into their efforts. “We came into this tournament trying to seal a World Cup slot,” Masaba, a 32-year-old bowler who works as a procurement manager in Kampala to make ends meet, had told HT. “We firmly believed that it was possible. We had put in a lot of work. The association in Uganda was very keen to get us here by organising a lot of games and tournaments. We have played maybe 40-50 T20Is over the last three years. It’s not a mistake that we are going to the T20 World Cup.”
That the Ugandans will be rubbing shoulders with players from Afghanistan, New Zealand, West Indies — they are in Group C where Papua New Guinea is the fifth team — is an opportunity of a lifetime. “This opens a lot of doors for cricket back home. It is going to popularise the sport in the country. It puts Ugandan cricket on the map. Just sharing a field with guys that we have seen playing on television, hopefully we can interact and learn from the best,” Masaba said.
Unlike most Associate teams that rely heavily on players from the subcontinent, the composition of Uganda’s squad suggests that cricket has a presence among the native black population. Simon Ssesazi is their leading run-getter with 2072 runs in 78 matches while Henry Ssenyondo, with 94 scalps in 77 matches, has taken the most wickets.
The Indian angle cannot be negated either given that Dinesh Nakrani, Alpesh Ramjani and Ronak Patel are integral members of the squad. The Indian connect has also been bolstered by the appointment of Abhay Sharma as coach. Sharma, a former Delhi and Railways wicketkeeper, has worked as a fielding coach with the Indian men’s and women’s teams in the past.
US and Canada, home to a sizeable number of expatriates from this part of the world, also have quite a few players of Indian origin in the mix. In United States’ case, left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh and batter Milind Kumar plied their trade in India’s domestic circuit before making the switch across the Atlantic. Harmeet, 33, played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) besides turning out for his state team Mumbai, and earned praise for his classical bowling approach from eminent names like Dilip Sardesai and Ian Chappell in his early years. He was also part of the India U-19 team that won the U-19 World Cup in Australia in 2012.
Milind learned the game in Delhi, but his headline act came for Sikkim when he topped the run-scoring list in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season with 1,331 runs in eight matches. As recently as in the 2020/21 season, he played 50-over games for Tripura. Left-arm pacer Saurabh Netravalkar, a software engineer working at Oracle, was the leading wicket-taker for India in the 2010 U-19 World Cup in New Zealand.
All-rounder Corey Anderson, once an integral member of New Zealand’s white-ball teams and the holder of the record for the fastest ODI ton (36 balls), is also adding muscle to the American middle-order. Having played 13 Tests, 49 ODIs and 31 T20Is for the Kiwis — the last of which was in 2018 — Anderson moved to the US in 2021. His considerable international experience may just come in handy when they begin their campaign against Canada in Group A, which also includes India, Pakistan and Ireland.
Neither of these newbies, of course, are expected to do anything more than make up the numbers. But you hope that they benefit from this exposure and make strides by the time the next T20 World Cup is held in India in two years’ time.
