New Delhi: Five discarded Indian and Pakistani cricketers, in a rare instance, joined hands in the far off Uganda and guided the African country to their historic entry into the T20 World Cup. Now, the three Indians are fervently hoping that Uganda are clubbed with India at the 2024 World Cup so that they could, with good performances, make those who rejected them regret their decisions.
Incidentally, all three Indians — Alpesh Ravilal Ramjani, Dineash Maganiai Nakranii, and Ronak Bharatbhai Patel — have their roots in Gujarat and have played age-group cricket in Gujarat and Mumbai. The troika says that they were not provided sufficient opportunities to showcase their talent and skill. Now, they feel, they could get a chance to perform well against India, if the two countries are grouped together, and show the world what mettle they are made of.
To their credit, all five — including Pakistanis Bilal Hassun and Riazat Ali Shah — played all six matches of the African region qualifying tournament that ended on 30 November in Windhoek, Namibia. They played prominent roles with bat and ball to steer Uganda into the 2024 T20 World Cup, to be played from 4-30 June in the West Indies and the US.
Hard-hitting batting all-rounder Ramjani, 29, who also bowls left-arm spin, was the qualifying tournament’s second highest wicket taker with 12 wickets in six matches — just one behind Zimbabwean pacer Richard Ngarava. Nakranii, 32, a left-handed all-rounder, bagged nine and was placed fourth. Shah, 25, and Hassun, 33, captured seven wickets each.
The third Indian and the oldest of the five Asians, 35-year-old Patel, does not bowl, but did well by giving flying starts as an opener, scoring 127 runs at 25.40 average in six matches. However, Shah was the best in this group with 132 runs, scoring at an average of 44.00 and a strike rate of 143.47, while Ramjani made 60.
Collectively, the five Asians tallied 402 runs and captured 35 wickets while finishing among the prominent performers of the tournament individually and showing firm commitment to their adopted country. Significantly, they proved to be a great help to their captain Brian Masaba as they contributed in planning and strategizing as well.
Celebrations just got started!
T20 World Cup-bound Uganda once again took the famous nursery school rhyme to the global audience.
Ekibobo kili mu nyumba led by coach @OgwangOyuku – Indeed the boys got the big basket in the house.#CricketCranesInColour #Twaake @PlasconUganda pic.twitter.com/V9ySSE4PKs
— Uganda Cricket Association (@CricketUganda) November 30, 2023
“The Ugandan captain and our team trust us a lot and have a strong belief in us, both the Indians and the Pakistanis. We assist the captain in setting field placements for the bowlers, in effecting bowling changes, in deciding batting order. In short, field ke andar hamari chalti hai (we have a say inside the field),” Nakranii told The Print.
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Focussed on the task
Apart from hard work and dedication of Uganda cricketers, a change in the rules also helped them qualify. Before this African region qualifying tournament, only the regional winner used to make it to the T20 World Cup. But for the 2024 World Cup, the International Cricket Council (ICC) gave the region an additional berth that increased the number of competing teams for the main tournament to 20. So, besides topper Namibia, the second-placed Uganda also qualified.
Presenting the 2⃣0⃣ teams that will battle for ICC Men's #T20WorldCup 2024 🏆
✍: https://t.co/9E00AzjcRN pic.twitter.com/1nu50LOLWQ
— ICC (@ICC) November 30, 2023
Nakranii pointed out that Uganda’s local players were getting desperate to play in the T20 World Cup. “Since 2018, they have been telling us ‘let us do anything, but qualify’. I told them that there was a process to follow and that it would take four-five years to achieve qualification. So, we followed the simple rules — bowling stump-to-stump and while batting, taking matches deep and focussing on running between the wickets — in the qualifiers,” he said.
In the qualifiers’ round-robin league format, Uganda stunned regional powerhouse Zimbabwe, but went down to Namibia, who have appeared in two T20 World Cups and one 50-over World Cup. It was Uganda’s lone defeat in six matches. “We lost to Namibia because we, unfortunately, dropped five-six catches, missed two-three run outs, and our batting collapsed. Also, we were overconfident, and we complicated our plans that were supposed to be simple,” Hassun said.
But it was the match against Kenya, who have appeared in five 50-over World Cups and one T20 World Cup, that made the players lose sleep as qualification loomed on the horizon. “We were so tense before that game that we hardly slept the night before. Then, we woke up early on the match day. There was a nervous feeling,” said Ramjani. “Before the Zimbabwe game, we had nothing to lose, but after beating them we now had everything to lose. Also, after beating Zimbabwe we knew we had to win the rest of the matches to qualify.”
Patel said the Uganda-Kenya clashes have a historic connotation. “It’s something of an El Clásico. We thought that if we made even a small mistake that resulted in defeat, we would slip down (in qualification race). Something or the other was going on in our minds; we were nervous. However, with a calm mind, we executed everything that we had planned for that match, and won easily.”
For Uganda, Ramjani, who has also played in the Mumbai T20 League, has been consistent with the ball throughout the year. As of December 18, he was the world’s leading wicket-taker in T20 Internationals with 50 scalps in 25 matches in 2023. He has so far bowled 89.5 overs, took a wicket every 10.78 balls, averaged 8.48, and has an economy rate of 4.71. He could further enhance his tally as he is set to play a few more matches before the end of the year.
The Asian five stars
Initially, the five cricketers played tapeball cricket in their home countries and in Uganda and the selectors and coaches noticed their performances. They were then picked for the Uganda national team — and haven’t looked back since.
Patel, who became a Level I coach in 2012 graduating from the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy, is the oldest of the lot while Shah is the most experienced in terms of the number of matches played. Patel has been playing in Uganda since 2018, having played league cricket in Kenya in 2014 and 2015 and in Mauritius in 2016 with the leather ball. Earlier, he was rejected in India after being named among the standbys for Gujarat under-19 team for two years, starting 2007, and later for the under-22 team for another two years.
Among the Asians, Nakranii and Shah are the joint senior most in terms of making their T20 Internationals debut, which came in the same match, against Botswana in Kampala on 20 May, 2019. So far, Shah has played 55 matches while Nakranii has played 50.
And now the Indians want Uganda to be placed in India’s group at the 2024 World Cup so that they could perform well and get noticed the world over — and show those who rejected them what they had missed.
“It is our wish that we are grouped with India in the group draw. Generally, I want to play against India. Another main reason is that I want to face Jasprit Bumrah. My loyalty is with Uganda,” said Patel. He, in fact, played a couple of matches with Bumrah representing Young Starlets Club in Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, as a youngster. “But I don’t think he would remember that,” Patel feels.
Rare India-Pak bonding
Though they met for the first time in Uganda, the five Asians say they have solid bonding, both on and off the field. “Our biggest advantage is that we have three good all-rounders in Ramjani, Nakrani, and myself. We have a fast-bowling all-rounder in Bilal Hassun, who can also score quick runs and hit sixes towards the end of an innings. And Patel is the top order batsman. In the middle order, Ramjani, Nakrani, and I can steer the game,” Shah said of their team combination.
Ramjani chips in on the friendship aspect: “We have been playing together for some years. We don’t think in terms of ‘we are Indians’ or ‘they are Pakistanis’. Since we play a team sport, we leave things like caste, creed, and religion outside the boundary. When we play, all 11 play as a unit and we have only one goal: help Uganda win matches.”
“I met Shah and Hassun in Uganda only. We enjoy each other’s company and on the field if something goes wrong due to any of us (Asians), we don’t blame anyone on the basis of his nationality,” Patel emphasises. “Bilal is always my room partner in ICC tournaments and Dineash’s room partner is Riyazat.”
The Gujarati owner of a prominent company in Uganda has provided accommodation to the three Indians while the two Pakistanis live elsewhere. That, however, is no indication of the strong alliance they have forged.
Hassun described their relationship the best. “Although we all met only in Uganda, we never felt like we hadn’t known each other previously. I can only define our relationship in this manner: I can go to the homes of Nakranii or Patel or Ramjani in India and ask their mothers to give food to her son Bilal from Pakistan. Similarly, they can go to my home and ask either my mother or my wife for food, whether I am at home or not. From this you can understand the type of relationship we have — and this is the reality.”
“On our tour of Kenya before the World Cup qualifiers, I developed acute malaria, and I couldn’t even walk. Alpesh would wake up at 3 am and bring hot water for me from outside. He never felt being disturbed — nor did I ever from their side. We have a very strong relationship.”
The writer is a journalist based in Delhi and has covered cricket for three decades. He tweets at @AlwaysCricket
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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