Cricket has a million followers in Uganda

“I became very popular after that,and not just in my hometown,Kampala. Uganda cricket has not looked back since. We were playing against my childhood heroes Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo,” recalls the 24-year-old all-rounder,who now captains the team.

The promotion from Division 3 to Division 2 in the ICC World Cricket League is one indicator of the rapid strides Uganda,who along with Kenya and Tanzania constituted East Africa in the 1975 World Cup,has made.

Though the famous two-wicket win bought the sport a multitude of fans,cricket still lags behind football,athletics,boxing and rugby in popularity.

“The sports fraternity is very small though,and cricket is easily our best performing sport. Out of a population of 34 million,at least a million are associated with cricket in some form or the other,” says the skipper. Arinaitwe insists that a full complement of home grown players is key for his team’s performance. “Being indigenous,we play cricket for our brothers and everyone in Uganda. We are the ambassadors of our nation. True to our nature,we play really exciting cricket,” he says.

The skipper agrees that exposure and infrastructure problems still persist. “Cricket is not televised in Uganda. And there’s no proper access to quality gear,” says Arinaitwe,who reveals that the team had been receiving equipment from the New South Wales Cricket Association over the last two years.

Despite the win over Kenya all those years ago,Ugandan cricket still owes a lot to their neighbours. Popularity of the sport only burgeoned following Kenya’s World Cup success in 2003. Coaching them in the Middle East is a Kenyan from the same batch.

“The structure is slowing taking shape,and schools’ cricket provides a great platform to generate talent. The East Africa Premier League too was a good initiative,” says coach Martin Suji,who played 64 ODIs for Kenya.

The boy from Kampala,meanwhile,is a man now and dreams of encountering the scourge of all bowlers—West Indian opener Chris Gayle.