Uganda cricket: Davis Arinaitwe Staged Return

The immediate past skipper of the national cricket side, Team Uganda, Davis Arinaitwe has climbed the game's version of Mount Everest one too many times.

Oftentimes the youngster has defied the odds, leaving his critics eating humble pie. It was last year that Arinaitwe became Team Uganda's youngest skipper. Then only 20 (he makes 21 in April), the young specialist spinner inherited a decidedly divided and instable locker room Arinaitwe's first assignment proper, which came in the shape of the ICC Division II World Cricket League, was a forgettable experience. Evitable losses to the likes of Denmark and hosts Namibia didn't bode well for Arinaitwe who punctuated his captaincy with a faux pas here and there.

The axe was duly wielded with the specialist spinner losing the national captaincy. The man whom Arinaitwe replaced - Joel Olwenyi - bounced back to reclaim the carrot.

Writing off Arinaitwe in the face of adversity though is an ill-advised decision. The 20-year-old is after all the master of comebacks in the local cricketing backdrop.

Many will remember Arinaitwe in 2002, then playing for Ntare SS in the Schools Cricket Week, scalping an opposition batsman just a delivery after he had been lofted for a colossal six.

Naturally, the loss of the captaincy has renewed questions about Arinaitwe's continued presence in Team Uganda's starting XI.

With Team Uganda boasting of an experienced spinner who fields and bats exceptionally well in the shape of Franco Nsubuga, many claim that Arinaitwe is making up the numbers in the national team. The 20-year-old thinks otherwise. "I have never thought of me being left out. I'm a performer; you don't leave out people who do well."

And Arinaitwe's figures from the just-concluded Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour of Uganda do him lots of justice. The youngster was the pick of Uganda's bowlers in the drawn three-day game against MCC. And Team Uganda's coach, the Kenyan Franco Othieno, is not about to close the door on the specialist spinner.

"For the moment we are going to stick with the 14 players we have used during this tour," Othieno revealed. So, there is everything to show that Arinaitwe will have an extended spell in Team Uganda.