Schools Cricket Week bats big time with Shs10M Pepsi sponsorship

Pepsi Cola has committed Shs10 million to the successful staging of this year’s Pepsi Boys Schools Cricket Week that will run from August 15th to 21st, 2015 at various ovals.

The week-long tournament will also be supported by Bankstown Cricket Club (Australia) will be played at five different grounds; Lugogo, Kyambogo, Kings College Budo, and Gayaza High Schoolcricket ovals with two games per day.    

Mr Innocent Tibayeita, the head of sales and marketing at Crown Beverages Limited, the bottlers of Pepsi, said "the sponsorship will cover, among other things, refreshments, publicity, transport, trophies, accommodation and meals".

“Pepsi has decided to sponsor the upcoming cricket week for boys secondary schools with a Shs10million package as a sign of itscontinued commitment to developing the sport in Uganda. The sport also offers us an opportunity to showcase our thematic campaign of Live For Now,” said Mr Tibayeita.

“As Pepsi Cola we know that youth want to grab as many fun, active, exciting and spontaneous, social opportunities as they can. They are ready for the fun, excitement and entertainment and they want all this, now. It’s for this reason that we are positioning Pepsi Cola as the catalyst for the Now moments,” he added at the unveiling of the sponsorship package at Lugogo in Kampala.

According to Uganda Cricket Association (UCA), 12 schools picked from the regional qualifiers will be joined by an invitational side from Rwanda to take part in the tournament.

From the Central region; Kololo SS, King’s College Budo, Aga Khan High School, Kyambogo College and Mukono Parents High School qualified for the event, while from the Eastern Region; Busoga College Mwiri, Jinja Senior Secondary School, Busoga High School, and St. James Senior Secondary School, as St Leo’s College Kyegobe and Nyakasura School qualified from the Western Region and Masaka Senior Secondary School from the South Western Region.

Last year’s championship was shared between Kololo SS and Busoga College Mwiri.

According to the Mr Justine Ligyalingi, the CEO UCA, this tournament, other than promoting development of the sport locally, is critical in identifying talent at various competition levels, including the national schools team.

“This competition provides the Association with a platform to select the squad of Under 19 players that shall be involved in the Global under 19 Qualifiers due to take place in October plus other age group tournaments. We would also like to thank the media for the good coverage of our activities, and looking forward to strengthen this relationship,” Ligyalingi said, adding: “We appreciate Pepsi’s contribution today, as well as their past support to the rejuvenation of the game in Uganda.”

This will be the fourth-year running that Pepsi is sponsoring theBoys Schools’ Cricket Week and fans will not only be able to enjoy ice-cold Pepsi Cola sodas but they will get a chance to win lots of prizes during the tournament.

This year’s tournament, according to Mr Ligyalingi, shall run for a whole week with the introduction of the quarter finals and classification games. The fixtures will be released after the draws on Saturday.

During this tournament, the best players shall be selected to form a schools select team that shall travel to Rwanda for a series of build-up games.

About Crown Beverages Limited

Crown Beverages Limited is Uganda’s oldest soft drinks company. The company is 100 percent Ugandan owned.  The company’s range of carbonated soft drinks includes: Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Mirinda Fruity, Mirinda Orange, Mirinda Pineapple, Mirinda Apple, 7UP, Evervess Bitter Lemon, and Evervess Tonic. The products are available in returnable glass bottles and plastic/PET bottles.Crown Beverages is a good corporate social citizen, with major investments in sports, education, music, and art development.

About Uganda Cricket Association /Schools Cricket Week

The Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) is the national body responsible for organisation and development of cricket in the country.The UCA is affiliated to the National Council of Sports. In 1998, Uganda was admitted as an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). UCA is also a founder member of the Africa Cricket Association (ACA).

In 1939, the first 'Schools Cricket Week' was held and it has since developed into a regular feature that is the source of national cricketers.The programme was expounded formally during 1976 and has been responsible for producing the players that have enabled Uganda to qualify for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cups in 2004 and 2006. Uganda's win in the ICC Africa U19 Championships in Zambia in April/May 2009 is a testimony to the development programmes. The senior national side is composed of products of the above programmes and currentlyhalf the squad are products of the last three years.