New Delhi, Apr 21 (PTI) Former First-Class cricketer Abhay Sharma is set to be named as head coach of Uganda national team ahead of its debut in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Sharma has the experience of donning the fielding coach’s role of India A and India-19s and also worked with the Indian women’s cricket team. The 54-year-old’s last coaching stint came with the Delhi Ranji team.
In November, Uganda had become the last team to qualify for the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies in June. Namibia were the other outfit which qualified for the ICC event from the Africa Qualifier.
“Abhay Sharma has been offered the head coach position with the Uganda national team. He is expected to take charge soon,” a source told PTI.
Uganda will begin their World Cup preparations with a fortnight-long training camp in Sri Lanka next week, where they will also play practice matches against local teams.
The World Cup will be the biggest ever, in terms of participants, till date with an unprecedented 20 teams taking part. The other associate nations that will be seen in action include hosts USA, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Canada and the Netherlands.
The 20 teams will be divided into four groups of five. The top two teams in each group will move to the Super Eight phase, where the remaining teams will be split into two groups of four.
The top two in each group will then make their way to the semi-finals, followed by the final.
Uganda will play their T20 World Cup league games in Guyana and Trinidad. They will open their campaign against Afghanistan in Guyana on June 3 before facing PNG and West Indies at the same venue on June 5 and June 8.
They play their final league fixture against New Zealand in Trinidad on June 14.
Back in November, they had beaten Rwanda to ensure a maiden World Cup qualification. The other teams Uganda beat in the Africa Qualifier included Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya, losing only to co-qualifier Namibia. PTI BS UNG
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