August 01, 2007	Wednesday	Rajab 16, 1428

NAIROBI, July 31: Veteran Kenyan wicket-keeper/batsman Kennedy Otieno said on Tuesday he was returning to Australia after he failed to receive a contract from Cricket Kenya.

The 35-year-old appears to have fallen out of favour with the cricket authorities after he was left out of the Kenyan team for the World Cup earlier this year and was not among the 20 players who have been put on contract starting in June this year.

Otieno said he would return to Australia on Thursday to rejoin the Caboolture club in Queensland where he spent six months last year.

“If I was offered a contract I would not have gone to Australia,” said Otieno, a veteran of 76 One-day internationals scoring 1683 runs, including two centuries, who accused Cricket Kenya (CK) of denying him the chance to return to national duty.

“It is a polite way of telling me that I am not needed. I would have loved to continue playing for Kenya but I have to look elsewhere for a livelihood,” said Otieno.

The player who made his international debut against India in the 1996 World Cup had been named in a squad of 30 players to start training for the inaugural Twenty20 world championships in South Africa in September.

His two siblings – fellow opener David Obuya and leg spinner Collins Obuya – were included in a 15-man squad named on Tuesday to play an India ‘A’ team in two three-day matches in Mombasa and Nairobi early next month.

—AFP