Now as full coach he has been entrusted to deliver the Holy Grail for Uganda Cricket and in his native Kenya, he will look to upstage his friends Joseph Angara who is in charge of Botswana and Jimmy Kamande the coach of Kenya.
Just last December he was in charge of the senior ladies team that went for the Emirates Cup in Dubai before UCA appointed him the U19 coach replacing Henry Oketcho.
He will have Jackson Ogwang as assistant while Martin Ondenko is the manager of the team.
We caught up with Othieno just after announcing the team for a brief Q and A?
Qn: How have the preparations been for the tournament?
Ans: Preparations have been good but not the best as I would have wanted to but will back it up.
Qn: What are your expectations of the boys?
Ans: Expectations are very high since most of the boys in the team have been doing duty for Uganda in the past two to three qualifiers and we expect them to come good this time round.
Qn: This would be the perfect redemption for Uganda Cricket qualifying for the World Cup. Do you feel some pressure to make sure the boys do well?
Ans: Yes, pressure is always there whenever one is working with any team going to the qualifiers or any other tournament but again I can only back up myself as a coach and believe in the abilities of my players.
Qn: Your peers Joseph Angara and Jimmy Kamande are in charge of Botswana n Kenya respectively. Is there some competition amongst yourselves to make sure one of you goes to the World Cup?
Ans: Competition is always there and this is no different but about the three of us as coaches I don’t think so since we happen to be good friends and we can only wish each other the very best of luck in the tournament but yes I would love to win against them.
The team jets out of Uganda for the Kenyan Capital Nairobi on Monday, 26th June for some warm up games before taking on Botswana in their 1st game on 1st July.
