There is a common adage in the game of cricket, that the older you get, the finer you become as is the case with wine.
There are several players who back up that theory. From Shane Keith Warne to Don Bradman and Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
And that’s being miserly with the greats whose folklore has dominated cricket to this very day.
When Hashim Amla announced that he’ll be stepping down as captain of the T20 side and vice-captain for the ODI (RSA) to focus on his contribution on the longer format, we felt cheated.
However, his reasons were justifiable. It is needless to refer the skeptics to the Test/ODI batting rankings.
The silent warrior comfortably sits atop in the batting rankings and came only short of another Test hundred on 93 against Pakistan in the 3-0 whitewash in February 2013.
Far distant from that was the announcement by Uganda’s Benjamin Musoke about his decision to retire from the T20 national side.
This came as a surprise since prior to the ICC T20 tournament, he’d joked that he was not about to retire—however before the week was over, the 36-year old had already informed the press about his resignation.
Musoke cut his teeth in the national side fold during the U-19 tournament in 1997 when he played for the East Africa team in Malaysia.
He hails from a rich tradition of products refined from Busoga College Mwiri, along with medium pace seamer and former captain, Kenneth Kamyuka and Junior Kwebiiha who held the fort for Uganda even before her admission to Division II.
“I thought about this for two years… [For] now, I will concentrate on the longer formats of the game and my businesses.” He glibly told the Daily Monitor.
That would mean that he was not going to be part of the side that would defend the Africa Division I title against Kenya. Musoke was instrumental when he got off to a quick 19 n.o off 18 balls with three boundaries in last year’s final against Namibia, a match Uganda eventually won.
On the fateful day, Benjamin Musoke aka “Benzo” hit 8 off four balls as Uganda set Botswana with 156/7, a game the hosts eventually won by 32 runs.
He was asked to captain the side in the 10th over which he did admirably maintaining a 100 percent record with their sixth straight win.
It was the match announcer who blew the lid off the case as he went about his ceremonial prematch player introductions when he confirmed that Benjamin Musoke was retiring from Twenty20 cricket for the national side.
As he strolled out of the club house to bat (he was left to bat last), the Botswana players gathered round to give Benzo a befitting guard of honour.
Later, his team mates were to offer him more bromance in the form of monster hugs and pats while coaches, Martin Suji and Steve Tikolo invited the rest of the squad and the travelling fraternity of fans thronged the scene as they offered a prayer for him.
Amongst the players who are most likely to feature for Team Uganda’s future engagements include 28-year-old left-arm spinner Chowdry and 27-year-old right-hand bat and off-spinner Moothosamy, who were ineligible to feature in this showpiece since the Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) could not secure their dual citizenship on time.
Chairman Justin Ligyalingi is confident that they will be drafted in the squad for the ICC World Cricket League Division three in Bermuda which Uganda qualified for by virtue of finishing second in the ICC Africa T20 (after Kenya) and will be joined by Namibia as the other African contender.
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