How two office workers from Namibia and Uganda ended up centre stage at the T20 World Cup

by Admin
May 30, 2024

Amè Mouton will be bursting with pride when her nation Namibia plays at the men’s cricket T20 World Cup in the West Indies next month, wearing a shirt that she designed.

And thanks to that kit, Mouton will be in the crowd cheering on the Eagles.

“I wanted to go to the World Cup to do a bit more travelling and was planning on going with one of my friends,” Mouton told ABC Sport from Namibia’s capital, Windhoek.

“When the opportunity arose to design a shirt and win return flight tickets I just grabbed it.

“I’ve always liked doing stuff on my computer and playing around with things so I put in some time and effort and took a chance.”

The process was not a simple one. It took trial and error, advice from her partner and some late nights.

“I made a few designs, it took me quite a long time since I’m not a designer,” Mouton said.

“It probably took me like a whole weekend to design one shirt properly.”

In her day job as an audit supervisor at an accounting firm, Mouton is a strategic thinker.

The 26-year-old applied that logic to the design process.

“I looked at the past kits that Namibia liked to wear and saw that they mostly made use of a lot of simple designs and lines and geometric shapes,” she said.

“They like going for faded colours into each other.

“I went onto that trend to fade the colours into each other and use lines to make a design that they would want to choose.”

Cricket Namibia chose Mouton’s entry and she had her ticket to the Caribbean.

Amé Mouton, who is an audit supervisor at an accounting firm, designed the Namibia kit for the T20 World Cup on her computer.(Supplied: Amé Mouton)

Mouton is a recent cricket convert and was first exposed to the sport while completing a university degree in South Africa.

“We would go and watch cricket at SuperSport park in Centurion but that was more for being together and having a drink next to a cricket field than it was the cricket itself,” she said.

When she returned to Namibia, a work colleague would often talk about cricket with her while games were on the television in the background.

Mouton soon developed a love of the national team along with an interest in other cricket nations. She’s also a keen follower of women’s cricket and admires Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner for her work on and off the field.

“She’s one of my favourites being someone who does a lot for her community, funding young women to be able to play cricket and making cricket available to her (Indigenous) community as well,” Mouton said.

Namibia will be making its third appearance at a men’s T20 World Cup and is in a group which includes heavyweights England and Australia. Only two nations will progress to the next stage of the tournament.

“Namibia’s very unpredictable because in the last (men’s) T20 World Cup in Australia they managed to win against Sri Lanka but then lost against United Arab Emirates,” she said.

“Sometimes they have these brilliant days when everything goes right for them and do stuff that no one thought they would be able to do.

“Hopefully they win their first two games against Scotland and Oman and give Australia and England a bit of a go.”

Another African nation Uganda will be making its first appearance at the tournament. Nicknamed the “Cricket Cranes”, the World Cup newcomers will be sporting a shirt designed by Wanyama Mangeni Elijah who has also scored himself a trip to the West Indies.

“I was really excited, I was so happy, the competition was really tight because there were good designs coming in from many people,” he said from Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.

“The voting was very tight it went up to the last few minutes, I was so happy when I saw that my design had won it because over 10,000 people had voted.”

The 31-year-old is a monitoring and evaluation officer by day but also runs a kit manufacturing company. He and his team have previously supplied an outfit for Uganda’s badminton team but creating a shirt for the cricket team is his highest profile job.

Mangeni Elijah and his team workshopped concepts for the design and took two days to refine it before he had a “light-bulb moment” at 1am.

“Much of the design is based off the feathers of the Uganda crane which is a national symbol, it is a national bird here, a revered and loved bird,” he said.

“On the shoulders we have feather patterns of different colours that is black, yellow and red which are also the national colours.

“It really came off well and it represents the resilience and the strength of the bird and the love that we have for the Uganda crane.”

Wanyama Mangeni Elijah with his original winning design for the Ugandan T20 jersey featuring the feather design on the shoulders.(Supplied: Wanyama Mangeni Elijah)

However, there was a late twist with the International Cricket Council ordering Uganda to remove the feathered patterns so that sponsors logos could be clearly visible.

Mangeni Elijah was diplomatic when giving his reaction to the decision.

“I’m a bit confused by the situation but I’m still looking forward to supporting the Cricket Cranes at the World Cup,” he said.

Mangeni Elijah is a long time player and supporter of cricket in Uganda and around the world. He follows the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League because his father did his PhD at the University of Queensland.

He can name “about a million” players that he likes across various nations from India’s Jasprit Bumrah to South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada. Ricky Ponting and the late Andrew Symonds are also high on his list of favourites along with members of the current Australian team.

“Glenn Maxwell, such a fantastic hitter of the ball, I like to watch those boys play the big sixes,” Mangeni Elijah said.

“I like watching Pat Cummins, such a fantastic captain.”

The revised Ugandan shirt for the T20 World Cup features completely bare shoulders in order to comply with sponsor logos.(Facebook: Uganda Cricket Association)

In its ninth attempt to reach the men’s T20 World Cup, Uganda upset Test-playing nation Zimbabwe in the qualifying rounds and booked its spot by finishing second behind Namibia. Mangeni Elijah believes the Cricket Cranes are capable of surprising the established teams at the 20-nation tournament.

“It’s a team that over the years has really developed and grown,” Mangeni Elijah said.

“We have some youth and also some experience in the team.

“I really feel for the other teams in the group especially New Zealand and West Indies, I know the boys are going to put up a fight against the big boys.

“I believe we can win games, the beauty about T20 cricket, it just takes a few moments then the game is won.”

No matter how Uganda fares at the tournament, Mangeni Elijah already feels like a winner. He’ll be there cheering on the Cricket Cranes as they finally take their place in one of the sport’s biggest events.

“Qualifying for the T20 World Cup was something that many people never really thought would happen in our lifetime but for the boys putting up a show and making history was for us, victory enough.”

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