If as, a local sports fan, you randomly ran a poll for the best run federation in Uganda, chances are, 3/4 of the responders will tell you Uganda Cricket Association.

Over the years, the sports fraternity in this country has been unfortunate to witness bunfights from some of the popular federations in the country. Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) and the Uganda Netball Federation lead the list of federations that have found no trouble in washing their dirty linen in public. You can not say the same for UCA.

When their national teams excel in their respective competitions, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone as these things are usually reflected by on pitch results. Just last year, the Cricket Cranes reminded the continent of what a force they are to reckon with by winning the Africa Cup that was held in South Africa in September, and in December, went unblemished as they won the inaugural East African Cup hosted by Rwanda.

The Victoria Pearls, the national cricket women’s team were also triumphant in their engagements as they won the Kenya Invitational Quadruple T20 tournament in Nairobi in December. That was after their heroics in Nepal where they won the series 3-2 in April.

UCA have earned themselves every right to be called a model Association. Not only have they kept the public away from their dirt, they’re one national federation that seem less bothered about government funding of the sports sector. Their activities always seem to be running smoothly which keeps bringing up questions like how do they do it ? Where do they get the money from?

Well, to answer that, a large chunk of UCA’s income comes from ICC, the international cricket governing body. In the year 2022, UCA received UGX 3bn from their mother body – that was 90% of that year’s income. It was money used to run the domestic league, cater for administrative and development costs among other expenditures.

But it is not really about the money rather, the powers that be deciding to use that money for it’s designed purpose.

The other sources of income for the Association are donations from well-wishers and their development partners which in this case are Batball and Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB). And sometimes from the country’s regulating body, National Council of Sports.

For the international competitions they take part in, if it is a none ICC event, like the Cricket Cranes current tour in Qatar, the host nation usually takes care of 3/4 of the costs.

Let’s take the Qatar trip for example! All UCA did was to pay for the air tickets. Accommodation, transport from the airport to the hotel and vice versa, refreshments and food during games, visa processing costs and all technical staff expenses are catered for by Qatar.

For an ICC event, the council usually covers all the trip expenses of all the 14 players and 3 officials. UCA only takes care of the team’s allowances and dinner.

This, in a nutshell is how UCA are able to run their activities. Not the richest of federations, but one admired by many. It goes back to doing the right thing. Positive results can be achieved if right things are done.