Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya's chairman, has been endorsed by the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association for re-election at the AGM which is due to be held on March 15. The backing of Kenya's largest province means that Inamdar will almost certainly be returned to office.

The AGM also marks the end of more than two years of dispute between CK and the NPCA which has led to the board's elections being delayed since June 2007. The NPCA constantly stalled in introducing a new constitution and at one stage it appeared as if CK might be forced to disband it and force it to elect new officials.

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Kenya’s preparations in South Africa for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers got off to a good start as they beat Easterns by 76 runs in their opening match at Benoni.

They need significant contributions from the old guard to help them post 193, Steve Tikolo leading the way with 63 and Kennedy Otieno making 46. Easterns were always off the pace, Peter Ongondo (4 for 26) reducing them to 52 for 5 before Jimmy Kamande (3 for 15) polished off the tail.

Click here for the scorecard.

Kenya’s preparations for April’s ICC World Cup Qualifiers, which got off to a dreadful start with a 5-0 whitewashing by Zimbabwe, continues when they head to South Africa for ten days.

The 16-man team will be based in Benoni.

Kenya squad Steve Tikolo (capt), Rajesh Bhudia, Jimmy Kamande, Alex Obanda, Collins Obuya, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Thomas Odoyo, Peter Ongondo, Lameck Onyango, Elijah Otieno, Kennedy Otieno, Maurice Ouma, Rakep Patel, Tony Suji, Hiren Varaiya and Seren Waters.

Former Kenyan Cricket Association boss Sharad Ghai has launched a remarkable attack on the current board, accusing chairman Samir Inamdar of putting his globe-trotting ahead of the interest of the game.

Ghai was ousted in 2005 after bitter disputes with players and stakeholders. Despite that, Ghai, who many suspect of still harbouring ambitions to return to national administration, claimed that Kenyan cricket was now at an all-time low.

Speaking to Sports Monthly magazine, Ghai slammed almost every aspect of the way Cricket Kenya is run. He reserved his most bitter attacks for Inamdar, a man who did more than most to help oust him. "The chairman is too preoccupied with the happenings at ICC at the expense of local cricket," Ghai said, "and who is paying for the travelling expenses."

Ghai also accuses the board of remaining in office illegally by not calling elections, a comment that one senior administrator under both regimes described as "the ultimate example of the pot calling the kettle black".

Elections, which are scheduled for next month, should have been held in June 2007 but have been constantly delayed by the failure of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association to sort out their own constitution. "The same person who is in the chair presently was a strong advocate of amending the constitution to be in line with CK," Ghai said. "[But] the goal posts have been shifted to give the team the excuse to remain in power illegally."

Ghai then attacked the failure of the board to ensure that money from Tusker, the main sponsor, was paid. "I have had dealings in the past with the sponsors and can state they are serious people who meet every commitment and obligation," he said. "CK has been giving the excuse the delay has been caused by a change of guard, yet successor takes over what his predecessor left.

"Kenyan cricket has been reduced to the lowest standard of competition," he concluded. "Cricket in Kenya is now in the ICU and if emergency measures are not taken, it is going to die."

Uganda retained their East African Women's Championship title with a ten-run win over hosts Kenya in the final, but it was a tournament that raised major questions regarding the standard of those competing.

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Uganda and Kenya, as expected, emerged as the favourites after convincing wins in the first two rounds of the Africa Cricket Association women’s tournament in Nairobi.

Kenya recorded the most comprehensive victory, thrashing Rwanda by 330 runs. Kenya rattled up 397 for 3 with Sara Batika smashing an 187 not out and sharing an unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 260 with Emily Ruto (74*). In reply, Rwanda managed 67 as Margret Banja took 4 for 17.

Uganda beat Tanzania by seven-wickets at Ngara Sports Club Oval in Nairobi, bowling their neighbours out for 61, and earlier added to Rwanda’s gloom by beating them by 276 runs.

The Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association super league champions, Kanbis, leave for India on December 10 where they will play several matches in Gujarat.

Getting accurate scorecards from major matches in Kenya is not always a simple process, and that was underlined by confusion which followed the third and final one-dayer between Kenya and the Pakistan Academy side at Nairobi Gymkhana.

At the end of the match it emerged that there were three different versions of the final card. The match’s official scorer, who was not familiar with the Pakistan side, made several mistakes. The Pakistan scorer provided a different card, and Cricinfo’s scorer turned in yet another.

In the end, it was decided the scores kept by the official scorer would be accepted as the legitimate scorecard.

A little more than a week after the postponement of the Champions Trophy, Cricinfo can reveal that the ICC will have to either move or postpone its next high-profile event, the World Cup Qualifiers.

The tournament, which involves the leading Associates, is due to be staged in the UAE next April, with the top four countries winning a place at the 2011 World Cup. The event will also be used to establish which six Associates will be granted one-day status for the next four years.

Read the full story here and leave your comments below.

The weather hasn't been kind to Associate cricket over the past week, and that drizzly trend continued at Ayr where Scotland's first ODI against Kenya was washed out.

In the play that was possible, Kenya struggled to 141 for 8 in 35 overs. Dewald Nel and John Blain each took two wickets as Kenya's fragile top-order failed to deliver, slipping to 32 for 3 when Steve Tikolo was caught behind for 2. However, Thomas Odoyo smashed four sixes in a brief 45 from 39 balls to loft Kenya's score towards something resembling respectable, before the rain fell once more.

Set 141 from a revised 35 overs, Scotland lost Gavin Hamilton for 9 but the rain again returned and the match was abandoned.

The second ODI at Ayr is scheduled for Wednesday, but the forecast is no more promising than today's.

Netherlands have beaten Kenya in the first match of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Belfast.

Netherlands won the first match of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier tournament with a good victory over Kenya by 19 runs. Their star performer was the South African-born Ryan ten Doeschate, the Man of the Match with a top score of 56 and impressive bowling figures of 3 for 27.

Click here for the full report.

Ahead of the World Twenty20 Qualifiers, Will Luke met Kenya's new coach, Andy Kirsten:

The venue is Cranleigh School, the occasion a warm-up for Kenya's cricketers ahead of the World Twenty20 Qualifier in Belfast. Nestled on the Surrey-Sussex border, surrounded by acres of high-quality pitches and the best equipment, it is a far cry from the makeshift and often decrepit facilities that Nairobi offer. An idyll, belying the pressure on Kenya and their new coach, Andy Kirsten.

We meet under the pavilion canopy with Kenya batting against a side led by Abeed Janmohamed, himself a former pupil of the school and Kenyan wicketkeeper. As Kenya's batsmen come and go with worrying frequency, Kirsten casts his eye around the manicured lawns and professionally prepared squares. "This is unbelievable," he says, taking a moment away from scoring the match on his laptop. "In Kenya, it's not a rich cricketing nation in terms of what's available, but we have to make the best of what little is available. For example when we come here and see this magnificent structure for nets, we don't have that. Every time we want a net, it's a manual operation for a couple of guys to erect some nets with old wooden poles. There's nothing permanent. There's always a procedure to be done."

Read the full interview.

The World Twenty20 Qualifers get underway at Belfast tomorrow. Have a read of our preview of this important event.

Kenya’s preparations for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers took a dent when they were well beaten by an Abeed Janmohamed XI at Cranleigh School. Janmohamed, who played for Kenya in 2004-05, led a strong side which included New Zealand’s Grant Elliott.

Kenya started well, reaching 81 for 1 before suffering a mid-innings collapse that left them 133 for 6 off 34 overs. Alex Obanda made a confident fifty but there was little else of note, and Steve Tikolo made only 1. Teenger Phil Roper, like Janmohamed, a product of Cranleigh School, took 2 for 20 off 10 overs, while Luke Woodcock returned 3 for 18. In the end, Kenya limped to 162 all out in 43 overs.

Elliott smashed 77 as Kenya’s bowlers were struck to all parts, while Seren Waters made 47. Waters, the son of former Kenya chief selector David Waters, left Cranleigh earlier this month and made the second-highest number of runs in the school’s history in 2008. He has already represented Surrey 2nd XI. Janmohamed’s side romped to a five-wicket win.

Twenty-four hours later, Kenya got back on track with a win at Hove against Guernsey, but again the side ranked as the leading Associate were forced to struggle after being bowled out for 194. Tikolo again failed, making 4, as Kenya slipped to 51 for 4 before Thomas Odoyo (61) bailed them out. Guernsey never challenged after being reduced to 40 for 6, although they did well to make 122 in 44.4 overs.

The ICC has announced a revised schedule for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Belfast next month.

The tournament, involving the six leading Associate teams - Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Scotland - will now take place from August 2 to 5, with a fourth day included to allow room for a third and fourth-place play-off.

Click here for the full story

A Rochdale-based community group, Sports for All, is hosting a reception for Kenya on Saturday, followed by a match on Sunday.

The match forms part of Kenya's European tour, in which they are to play in the ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers in Belfast.

"We have made this a free event to encourage families and young people to attend. It is a unique opportunity for those who enjoy cricket, to watch an international team play in their town,” Mohammed Nazir, the chairman of Sports for All, said. “However, we also hope to have encouraged young people to attend and enjoy several events.”

Portfolio holder for community cohesion, Councillor Mohammad Sharif has also pledged his support for the event.

"It is not often a national cricket team visits Rochdale,” Councillor Mohammad Sharif said. “Our town has a beacon status for community cohesion and it is therefore a great privilege to have the national team of Kenya visiting Rochdale. I hope the weather is good and we enjoy not only excellent cricket but our young people enjoy a fun day out too."

Rochdale Cricket Club have also organised an international XI to play Kenya in a 50-over match.

Cricket Kenya has angrily denied claims in the Daily Nation that it broke its own selection rules in picking former captain Ragheb Aga for their European tour.

The newspaper, which has been overtly critical of the new board ever since the old Kenyan Cricket Association was replaced in 2005, accused CEO Tom Tikolo of double standards. “The basis on which Aga was picked is only known to the selectors,” Richard Mwangi wrote. “By picking Aga the selectors could have denied a deserving youngster who has been training with the rest of the boys an opportunity of being exposed to a high level, which does not augur well with the development programme.”

The claims by the paper were dismissed by Tikolo as “wholly inaccurate and misinformed”. He continued: “It reflects a misconceived notion that the Kenya national cricket team can only be picked from amongst those players who participate in its elite domestic leagues. This condition is meant for all players who ordinarily reside in the country during the season. There are several Kenyan players who play overseas and do not participate in local leagues and still feature in the national team - because they play in a country and for a team that participates in the top flight of cricket. The most recent examples of such players are the the Obuya brothers who played in Australia.”

Aga is contracted to Sussex, and while CK rules insist that overseas players participate in local leagues and to return home to prepare for a fortnight before any matches or tours.

However, given Aga has a professional and binding contract with the county. “His record and performance speaks for itself, particularly so in the English press where he is reported as being in impressive form for his county,” Tikolo explained. “He cannot participate in the Kenya domestic league because by doing so he would lose his county contract. After much persuasion, Sussex have agreed to release Ragheb so that he can play for Kenya in important matches without this prejudicing his contract.”

Samir Inamdar, the board’s chairmen, met with Sussex officials last week to obtain the necessary clearance, and Aga’s inclusion has to be seen as a plus at a time many players from Associate countries are opting to miss national games and remain with their counties.

The Nation also attacked the board for its handling of Tanmay Mishra, who, it claimed, “was dropped from the side for failing to attend nets earlier in the year, although his form was not in doubt”.

Mishra had in fact turned his back on Kenyan cricket to investigate furthering his education in India, and was unable to commit to his game when pressed to do so by the national selectors.

Samir Inamdar, the chairman of Cricket Kenya, was elected as the chairman of the Associate and Affiliate members of the ICC at the annual conference in Dubai.

Inamdar, who was already one of the three representatives of the non Test-playing countries on the ICC executive board, replaces H.H. Tunku Imran who stood down because of his commitments with the IOC.

Inamdar, who polled 26 votes, is joined on the ICC executive board, by Imran Khwaja (Singapore, 22 votes) and Neil Speight (Bermuda, 21). Rene van Iashort from the Netherlands received 18 votes while Israel’s Stanley Pearman, who was a sitting representative, finished bottom of the pile with 16 votes.

Emmanuel Nakaana’s 58 guided Uganda to a ten-wicket win over Rwanda in the opening round of the ICC East Africa Under-17 tournament. In the day’s other game, Kenya thrashed defending champions Tanzania by 100 runs.

Almost three years late, the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association has finally elected a new board, paving the way for the overdue Cricket Kenya elections.

The NPCA saga has blighted Kenyan cricket for several years with a virtually dysfunctional board failing to holding meetings or produce accounts. The failure to implement a new constitution, as agreed back in 2005, led to a postponement in national elections. The new NPCA executive now has 60 days to put their house in order.

Bipin Vora won the vote to become the new chairman by 29-19, while other officials appointed include: Nilesh Lakhani (vice-chairman), John Moyi (secretary), Harshes Patel (assistant secretary), Kalpesh Solanki (treasurer), Shashikant Sanghani (assistant treasurer), Shahid Bwibo (fixtures secretary), and Michael Kibe (assistant fixtures secretary). The committee is completed by Rajesh Patel, Seiffudin Maloo, Oduor Ambala and Sheikh Najani.

Rumours that former KCA chairman Sharad Ghai would mount a comeback bid amounted to nothing. He did not even attend the meeting.

Next week's ICC annual get-together promises to have more than its fair share of politicking, posturing and controversy. But, unless there is a major about-turn, it should also be a watershed for the Associates and Affiliates.

In 2009, income from the ICC's six-year media deal with ESPN-Star, worth over US$1 billion, kicks in, and while the game's big boys will still keep the lion's share, the rest will see substantial increases in their incomes.

Although the ICC draws considerable flak on many fronts, it is quietly committed to promoting the game in as many countries as possible, and it does that by means of a myriad of competitions and initiatives. Most do not warrant much media attention, but they are there and they work.

Until now, the gripe of the smaller countries, and especially those bubbling just underneath the top flight, has been about the inequality of the way in which the game is financed. That was never more apparent than when it came to earnings from last year's World Cup.

Ireland got a flat fee of US$125,000 a year for four years for taking part, and on top of that they received another $50,000 for reaching the Super Eights. However, because of the extra costs involved in their progression, not least because their players are not professional cricketers and their absences from their full-time jobs had to be underwritten, Ireland's success actually left the board out of pocket.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, turned up, tied with Ireland and never threatened to progress after being thumped by Pakistan and West Indies. For those three matches, Zimbabwe Cricket received US$11 million, their share of the pot as a Full Member.

The top six Associates receive no more than US$500,000 a year - some substantially less - to fund their entire operations. Out of that they have to pay all their cricketing and administration costs. Only those with a low cost of living, such as Kenya, can hope to maintain a professional squad on that kind of money.

The gulf between the haves and have-nots is further widened by the limited sums Associates can earn from sponsorship and media contracts. Zimbabwe can exploit home series against, say, India to carve out lucrative TV deals worth millions, and on the back of that, attract shirt- and other corporate sponsorship. As highlighted by Scotland's failure to secure any TV deal for their forthcoming ODI against England, the Associates struggle to get such income streams.

The new deals will provide a substantial increase for Associates, especially for the countries who are pressing for space at the top table. Until now the share has been roughly equal, rewarding Netherlands and Kenya on par with Thailand and Fiji. The new system will see more demarcation between the top Associates and the rest.

The leading ten could earn as much as US$1.5 million a year from 2009. There will then be an onus on them to professionalise their administrations, but several of them are already well down that route. They will also be more accountable - the ICC does not want a repeat of the mess that came following a spike in Kenya's funding earlier in the decade.

The second-string Associates will also get more - around US$160,000 as a base figure - but then again the demands on them are less. Even Affiliates will receive US$15,000, with the opportunity for more should they make a good enough case. There will also be more cash in the pot for participating and hosting competitions.

There have never been more opportunities for development outside the Full Member countries, but there remain some nagging worries.

The main one is how to bridge the gap between semi and full-blown professionalism. Almost all the Associates rely on dedicated amateurs, both on and off the field. As the number of ICC competitions has increased - and they have to be welcomed - the pressure has begun to tell. Scotland and Ireland particularly have already found players cannot meet all their commitments, and even the increased income will not allow them to employ a full-time squad.

"So much of putting players on full-time retainers depends on how many fixtures we can command," Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland's chief executive, said. "At the moment, all we can promise the squad in 2009 is a World Cup qualifying campaign, eight FP Trophy matches, an England game, and probably some Intercontinental Cup matches. Of course, we hope to have more, but can't be sure at the moment.

"Our top players are already plying their trade in county cricket, while others have full-time jobs which they may not wish to give up. The actual number of players that the coach will want to put on a full-time contract, or else the number that even want to have one, may not be that many."

The other quandary is how to get them fixtures. Kenya, widely regarded as the leading Associate, have found it almost impossible to get Full Member countries to visit or host them. As a result they invariably play other Associates. Good for the win-loss ratio, not so clever in providing the kind of experience that no amount of money can buy.

These issues will need to be addressed, but for now the future has never looked so promising beyond the Test world.

Kenya's National Elite League has hardly been the success that Cricket Kenya hoped for, and with one round of matches remaining, there are three sides in with a shout of the title - but the more important question is whether anyone actually cares.

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Ireland will host the inaugural World Twenty20 Qualifiers between August 2 and 4, with the top six Associates vying for the two places available to them in next year's ICC World Twenty20 in England.

Click here for more and the itinerary.

Cricket Kenya has had to reschedule its planned three-day league because of the lack of availability of players.

Due to start last Friday, the event will now run on the next three weekends with game restricted to two days. Tom Tikolo, the board's chief executive, explained that this move had been forced on them by the "unavailability of many players who are students and/or working". He added that it was expected that at least 100 overs would be bowled on each day and that the matches would still be two-innings affairs.

The move will be a bitter blow to Cricket Kenya who had been looking to the competition to highlight any emerging talent outside the tried-and-known national squad.

The tournament had initially be scheduled for January and had been intended to coincide with holidays, making the availability for schoolboys much easier. But the violence which followed the disputed presidential elections put paid to that.

Swamibapa Cricket Club won Nairobi’s three-day six-a-side cricket tournament by beating Kanbis Sports Club in the final. Kanbis batted first and made 52 for 3, and although Swamibaba also scored 52, they were adjudged winners as they had only lost two wickets. Steve Tikolo was the top scorer for Swamibapa with 17.

In the losers’ plate competition, Sir Ali Sports Club A beat Sir Ali Sports Club B Team.

The tournament, which attracted 27 teams from Nairobi Province, was organised by Shree Cutchi Leva Patel Samaj under the banner of Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association. It was sponsored by Tile and Carpet Centre Limited and co-sponsored by Crown-Berger Kenya Limited.

Cricinfo has learned that the Afro-Asia Cup, which was reported to have been quietly sidelined after the 2007 event in Bangalore, has been revived.

Plans had been discussed whereby the existing Asia Cup, which takes place in Pakistan next month, would be supplemented with an African Cup. The winners of the two tournaments would then play off in an Afro-Asia final.

However, the packed international schedule meant that it was too difficult to find room for the African competition in 2008 and so a competition using the old three-ODI format will be held in Kenya during 2009.

Although the event has raised valuable funds for the African Cricket Association and the Asian Cricket Council, it has been less than a hit with audiences and has struggled to find a niche in the calendar. Despite the best intentions of the two associations, the weight of cricket means that it is still by no means certain to proceed.

Kenya’s proposed tour to Denmark has been cancelled after the Danes advised that their players would not be able to get enough time off to fulfill the scheduled matches. The news is a blow to both sides as they start their preparations for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers next April.

Kenya will now have to start their European tour in England where they hope to arrange some matches against quality opposition. They will be based at Cranleigh School where David Waters, the former head of selection, now works.

However, Kenya were rebuffed in attempts to get a match against the MCC which claimed that it would not be able to get a strong-enough side out to take them on.

Less than 48 hours after Cricinfo revealed that Kenya were having problems arranging ODIs against South Africa, the South African board has offered two dates later this year.

Although the exact details have yet to be agreed, the matches will take place on October 30 and November 2.

"We look at South Africa to support us," Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya's chairman, said yesterday. "They made the commitment at the ICC board meeting two years ago but it seems that commitment is not there now and that worries us."

Cricket Kenya will look to add other matches against provincial sides to the tour as part of their preparations for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in 2009.

Much is spoken about the expansion of the international game, and if, as expected, proposals for a significant increase in funding for the Associates is approved when the ICC meets in June, then their progress should be further boosted.

But cash and goodwill can only go so far. What is widely agreed is that to improve, the leading Associates need to play more, and against the elite top ten Full Member countries. And that is where the problems come.

A casual glance at the international schedule will show that the major countries are on an almost constant global tour. In part this is because of the requirements of the Future Tours Programme, but more often than not the large gaps in that schedule are filled with lucrative one-day tours or tournaments.

In an ideal world, there would be time for India or England to undertake ambassadorial tours to Kenya or the Netherlands. But given the choice between a lucrative three-match series against commercially attractive opposition containing star names or a trip to a cricketing outpost in Africa or Europe, it's not a contest.

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Bangladesh romped to a nine-wicket win over Malaysia in the third-place play-off in the CLICO International Under-15 tournament in Trinidad. Ireland defeated ICC Americas by two wickets to secure fifth place, while Netherlands thumped Kenya to take seventh.

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There were big wins for West Indies, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia on the second day of the CLICO International U-15 Championship in the Caribbean. Of the three, only Bangladesh are not guaranteed a semi-final place, meaning the winner of their match against Ireland will progress to the last four.

Click here for the full round-up

John Campbell struck 112 for West Indies Under-15s in the CLICO International Under-15 Championship. Click here for the full report. Scorelines and cards for the other matches can be found below.

West Indies 237 (Campbell 112) beat Bangladesh 200 (Nelson 3-43) by 37 runs
Scorecard

Ireland 111 for 3 (Getkate 31*) beat Kenya 110 (Karim 46, Getkate 4-17) by seven wickets
Scorecard

Pakistan 332 for 5 (Naeem 90) beat Netherlands 102 (Worries 20, Gohar 3-32) by 230 runs
Scorecard

Malaysia 157 for 8 (Goonasagaran 33, Hazim 19*) beat Americas 156 (Joshi 64, Zahid 3-36) by two wickets
Scorecard

In what has to amount to one of the most remarkable cases of the pot calling the kettle black, former KCA chairman Sharad Ghai has told The Nation that Cricket Kenya is in breach of an agreement with the ICC by not holding elections.

Ghai told The Nation: "CK should not use the delay in the amendments of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association's constitution as an excuse for delaying the elections because they would not affect the number of delegates allocated to the province."

Click here for the full story

Kenya, tipped by some as one of the teams to watch, were easily beaten by an ICC Americas team in the first round of the Clico International Under-15 Championship. Set a modest 134 to win, ICC Americas eased to a six-wicket win with more than 13 overs to spare.

Kenya won the toss but never got their innings going and limped to 133. Bermuda’s Joshua Gilbert, who had taken 2 for 11 with his offspin, played the anchor innings with an unbeaten 43 off 97 balls, twice being dropped, but that was not enough to win him the Man-of-the-Match award which went to Nitisj Kumar who took 3 for 14.

In the day’s other game, Pakistan beat Ireland by eight wickets to book a semi-final against Bangladesh while ICC Americas will play West Indies. Ireland managed only 99 off 43.3 overs, Usman Qadir, the son of the legendary Abdul Qadir, taking 3 for 22, a score Pakistan passed in 20.5 overs.

Uganda Cricket Association hosted the AfriPals Cricket team from Kenya over the Easter Weekend, 21st – 25th March 2008. The AfriPals were scheduled to play a total of three games against Uganda A and UCA select sides. The AfriPal’s delegation which was headed by Coach Martin Suji consisted of several big names from the Kenyan National side such as Peter Ongondo, Jimmy Kamade, David Obuya, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Alfred Lusano, Elijah Otieno and Tony Suji among others. Of the scheduled three games, only one was played as the other two were washed away by the heave Easter Sunday downpour. A very closely contested Pro20 game at the start of the series turned out to be the decider of the series.

AFRIPALS VS UGANDA XI (Saturday 22nd March 2008)
TOSS: UGANDA
SKIPPERS: UGANDA XI - JOEL OLWENY
AFRIPALS - JIMMY KAMANDE
RESULT: UGANDA XI WON BY 1 RUN

The performances of both sides were much appreciated by the funs and Uganda Cricketing fraternity, this tickled a personal offer of a cash token to both teams by Mr. John Nagenda a Senior Presidential Advisor and a senior citizen in the cricket fraternity.

To widespread frustration, Cricket Kenya has postponed the three-day part of its Elite League on the eve of the first round of matches.

Originally, the three rounds of three-day matches were to have started earlier, but the whole event had to be delayed because of the domestic upheaval which followed December's presidential elections. The one-dayers, which should have been played over two weekends, then had to be extended to a third because of a conflict with Nairobi's 45-over competition.

In a media release, CK said that onset of the Long Rains had led to the tournament being postponed until June. The first round will now take place between June 6 and 9 with the second and third rounds starting on the following Fridays.

"The rains which have pounded the city heavily over the last one week have left most of the grounds waterlogged and the groundsmen have found it difficult to prepare for these matches," Tom Tikolo, the board's CEO explained,

As widely expected, the ICC executive board approved proposals to reduce the number of Associates participating at the 2011 World Cup from six to four.

This was done, so the ICC claimed, to reduce the length of an event which many considered to be too bloated in 2007 from 47 days to 38.

The ICC's 10 Full Members automatically qualify and they will be joined by the top four teams from next years World Cup Qualifiers in Dubai. As thing stands, this means that Ireland have to qualify for a tournament they reached the Super Sixes at last time, while Zimbabwe, who are below them in the official ICC One-Day Rankings, do not.

Alternative proposals, including one which would have involved a pre-qualifying tournament featuring the top six Associates as well as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, were earlier rejected by the ICC's chief executives committee.

David Waters, one of the most respected administrators in the country, has resigned as the head of Kenya’s selectors as well relinquishing his place in the Cricket Kenya executive.

Waters stepped down as secretary of the fractious Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association in November after growing weary of the infighting within the executive and also the way in which his name was being used to give credibility to erroneous statements.

Samir Inamdar, CK’s chairman, praised Water for more than 23 years of service. “I am well aware of your own personal contribution and commitment to developing the game in Nairobi which is clearly visible in the sizeable number of youngsters now playing representative cricket for Kenya,” he said.

Kenya's Elite One-Day League was thrown wide open as both teams that lost last week won in the second round of the competition. That leaves all sides level on four points with all of them in with a chance of the title in next weekend's final round of matches.

Click here for the full review and table.

As widely predicted, Cricket Kenya have offered Andy Kirsten the post of national coach. The Nation reported that the board made the decision when it met at the weekend.

The MCC ended their Uganda tour with two emphatic wins over Kenya's Under-19 side. The games were originally scheduled to have been played in Nairobi but were rearranged at Kampala's Kyambogo Oval as a result of Kenya's political unrest following December's presidential elections.

Click here for the full report

The number of people actively participating in cricket outside the Test-playing countries increased 17% in 2007, according to the ICC.

The research, carried out by the ICC's development program, was collated from 33 Associate and 58 Affiliate members. It showed that there were 338,051 male and female players in those countries in 2007, an increase of 49,158 on the previous year. Since 2002, when there were 144,047 participants, there has been a 135% rise.

Click here for the full story.

Eastern Aces won Kenya's inaugural Elite Twenty20 league with back-to-back wins in the weekend's matches.

Click here for the reports, scorecards and final table.

Alex Obanda struck an unbeaten 51 from 41 balls to lead Eastern Aces’s emphatic nine-wicket win over Northern Nomads, on the second day of Kenya’s inaugural elite Twenty20 competition. The Nomads only managed 105 for 8 in their 20 overs - Shashikant Sanghani top-scoring with a 23-ball 37 – with Nelson Odhiambo picking up 2 for 11. Eastern Aces romped home in the 14th over, with Steve Tikolo cracking 48 from 36 balls after the early loss of Newton Muthee.

Kenya's elite Twenty20 competition got off to a low-key start as Western Chiefs crushed Southern Stars by nine wickets in a woefully one-sided game at Nairobi Gymkhana. Stuck in to bat, Southern Stars limped to 57 all out in 15.4 overs, never recovering from crumbling to 3 for 3 inside nine balls. Western Chiefs were barely troubled and an unbeaten 31 from Jadavji Jesani helped them home with almost nine overs in hand.

Despite the civil unrest inside Kenya following the disputed presidential elections in December, Cricket Kenya has announced that its Elite Cricket League will begin this weekend.

The league, which is sponsored by Sahara Computers and also underwritten by the African Cricket Association, will feature the best 60 players from across the country. They will be divided between four sides - Northern Nomads, Southern Stars, Western Chiefs and Eastern Aces - to ensure that the teams are as evenly balanced as possible. Each of the squads will contain four nationally-contracted players.

Click here for the full story and click here for the match schedule.

Cricket Kenya is closing in on its hunt to find a replacement for Roger Harper, who stood down as coach after the ICC World Twenty20 in September.

More than 30 applications from around the world were received for the vacancy and Cricinfo understands that a South African-based applicant, believed to be Andy Kirsten, is among the front runners. He was in the frame the last time the position was open in 2005 but was committed to existing work in South Africa and eventually the board chose Harper.

Kirsten worked with the Kenyan side during their successful 2003 World Cup campaign when Sandeep Patil was the national coach. As a result, he is known to many of the senior players and is believed to have a good relationship with them.

Concern is growing that the civil unrest in Kenya might put the Intercontinental Cup tie against Namibia at the end of the month in doubt. It has already delayed Kenya's preparations for the match against UAE in Sharjah.

Click here for more

Some things remain depressingly constant and one of them is the media crusade against Cricket Kenya in The Nation.

“This was a year when Kenyan cricket sunk further into mediocrity despite Kenya’s triumph,” Richard Mwangi writes in an article mischievously and misleadingly entitled Kenya’s game still in the gutter, before a long rambling column which does little to substantiate his claim. He ends with a comment that the Cricket Kenya failed to hold an AGM “which could have ushered in new officials”. An explanation why might have helped but it suited his argument not to go into that.

Mwangi, like any reporter, is, of course, entitled to his views. But as we have stated before, there have to be questions as to who is pulling the strings of the general sniping. The board are privately angered by the stance of the Nation after several olive branches have been spurned or used to beat those offering them.

Kenya has issues for sure, but a year in which they won the World Cricket League and won 14 out of 17 ODIs, signed a new TV deal and a new sponsor cannot be all bad. But that’s not the kind of story that the Nation is interested in peddling. Kenyan cricket needs all the help it can get to rebuild, while being subjected to valid criticism, but they know by now that the mainstream newspapers won't be the ones to do that.

Uganda underlined their growing reputation as one of cricket's emerging forces with a 12-run victory over neighbours Kenya in the final of the East and Central Africa Under-15 Championship. The win avenged their defeat by the Kenyans in last year's final.

Click here for a full report

Kenya have selected five new players for the East and Central Africa youth tournament which gets underway on Sunday.

The five new players include Nikit Shaha, Harrison Ambani, Ivan karim, Deresh Patel and David Muibo. The team of 14 players was named as the team did their final touches today at Sir Ali Muslim club in Nairobi.

Coach David Asiji said only four players who featured in last year's tournament are in the squad among them Kennedy Owino, Immanuel Bundi and Kewal Patel.

Asiji said they are seeking to reclaim the title from Uganda who beat them in the final last year.
The event will feature four countries from east and central Africa among them hosts Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

Full story at Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s site.

The Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association was plunged into another crisis with the resignation of Nilesh Lakhani from the executive.

Lakhani, who is chairman of the Parklands club, is seen as one of the people within the NPCA who actually gets things done, and his resignation will be a serious blow to the credibility of the already beleaguered executive. The NPCA has already lost its chairman and secretary this year.

Martin Williamson also warns that the stakeholders' meeting in Nairobi threatens to be overshadowed by the ongoing row, and that the Nairobi executives are making outlandish claims to mask their own failings.

Some of the accusations are ridiculous, others scurrilous, but they all have one purpose - to deflect attention from the glaring issues inside the NPCA. Those at the helm of the NPCA know that the more mud they can sling, the greater the disharmony and the better their chances of clinging to office.

It has to be hoped that the stakeholders' meeting does not allow those running the NPCA to drag it into the dirt and that it addresses the more important issues facing Kenyan cricket. If it does, then it should be a most productive two days.

And it also has to be hoped that CK receives the backing of stakeholders to move in and remove the remnants of the NPCA executive and to hold fresh elections as soon as possible. For Kenyan cricket to move forward, it needs a strong NPCA and not one run by people whose only aim is self preservation.

Cricket Kenya is coming closer to stepping in to address the shambles inside the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA).

However, reports in the local media that Samir Inamdar, the CK chairman, had delivered an ultimatum to the NPCA are not true. Inamdar has asked the NPCA to provide a copy of the new constitution which should have been ready in September and to address its lack of accountability to stakeholders in the province.

The NPCA has not held an AGM for more than three years and it is not thought to have even held council meetings, which involve every constituent club and are supposed to take place twice a year, for almost as long. The chairman left for Australia almost a year ago, and the secretary resigned last month. Several dates have been set for an AGM but these have repeatedly been cancelled by the NPCA executive.

John Moyi, the acting secretary, replied in a typically abrasive manner by telling Inamdar that he had no business in interfering in NPCA affairs "because he does not represent any club". Inamdar's local board is the Coast Cricket Association, although as chairman of the national body he has every right to become involved in a dysfunctional local association.

"I'm unhappy with the way the NPCA is operating," Inamdar said. "They have left clubs in the dark about their constitution and operations and they keep on postponing elections."

Moyi countered that the NPCA was on course to hold elections before the end of the year.

The main Cricket Kenya elections have been repeatedly delayed by the failure of the NPCA to review its constitution, and the ICC is monitoring the situation closely.

A Kenyan XI beat Uganda in two warm-up matches at Kampala's Lugogo Oval. The games were arranged to give the Ugandans practice before next week's World Cricket League Division Two competition in Namibia.

Click here for the full story

Rwanda will take part in the East Africa regional Under-15 Championship which will be held in Nairobi from December 8.

Tom Tikolo, Cricket Kenya's CEO who is also the Africa Cricket Association tournament director, said Rwanda will join Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in a competition that will be used to pick two teams - women’s and Under-15 boys’ - to represent the region in South Africa next year.

Tikolo, however, said Rwanda will not have a women’s squad like the other three countries.

Tony Cozier is, rightly, one of the most respected journalists in the game. His work to cover and promote cricket in the Caribbean has been unstinting for almost four decades. And yet even the best writers have off days, and his attack on the way that the ICC funds the Intercontinental Cup, the first-class competition for the Associates, is one of those.

Cozier's outburst in his Caribbean-syndicated column at the weekend in effect concluded that rather than waste money on Associate tournaments it would be better spent on aiding West Indies, a “well-established member with a great tradition presently fallen on hard times”.

Cozier attacked the ICC for doling out "heaven knows how much cash every year" to run the Intercontinental Cup. The overall annual cost of the tournament is actually around $400,000 on top of which the participants contribute another $120,000 between them. For that, the leading eight Associate countries get to play in a prestigious (for them) competition, to meet a variety of opponents across the world and to improve.

Yes, it has its faults and there are mismatches, but the same could be said for any competition or series involving the Full Members. When was the last time Bangladesh or Zimbabwe or, dare it be said, West Indies played in a gripping contest as opposed to occasional one-off successes. As seen at the World Cup, the gulf between the have and have-nots on the field may be large but it is nothing like as vast as the chasm between their respective funding.

The leading Associates survive on grants of under half a million dollars a year; some, such as Kenya and Scotland, earn more through winning tournaments such as the World Cricket League which entitles them to ICC World Twenty20 participation money. The Full Members receive twenty times more. Zimbabwe, for example, coined in almost $11 million from the World Cup, and yet they struggle to hold their own with several Associates. What is more, the Full Members almost all have bloated payrolls; the Associates rely almost entirely on goodwill of hard-working administrators who often end up digging deep into their own pockets to keep things ticking over.

What Cozier seems to overlook is that the ICC should not be about looking after the big boys and forget the rest, although as the major boards become more money-obsessed by the month it may go that way. It has a responsibility to nurture and support the game in areas away from the traditional bedrocks. That is done through a myriad of tournaments, coaching clinics and advice. The total sum spent on Associates is under 25% of the ICC's overall budget. To scrap that would be akin to pulling up the drawbridge, hoping that the game survives among the existing ten Full Members, and hang the rest. No other sport would consider such a short-sighted policy, and neither should cricket.

Then there is the additional income that Full Members can earn through the very fact they play each other so often. Sponsorship and TV deals bring in tens of millions on top of the ICC funding. Although the WICB has never revealed the value of the original deal with Digicel, it is believed to be worth more than $20 million for five years. The England board's four-year TV deal with BSkyB was worth in excess of $400 million, the Indian board's own deals even more. They should be awash with cash.

Associates cannot attract funding worth even 5% of that as they play precious few big matches, a fact not helped by the continuing reluctance of most Full Members to play them. The big boys prefer to pack their schedules with ever longer one-day series against the same old - more lucrative - opposition. Television and sponsorship deals for Associates, if they ever get them, are for peanuts.

Cozier also argues that the Intercontinental Cup is not worthwhile as sides cannot always field their full sides as players cannot get time off work. It is a problem, and one everyone is aware of. But that ignores the fact that the bulk of players are prepared to make remarkable sacrifices to represent their countries. With more funding, and not with less, those players can be rewarded for their cricket skills and so availability will improve. As an aside, it is worth remembering West Indies couldn't find 15 players to represent their A team in Zimbabwe last July.

To argue that the woes of the West Indies could be cured by diverting cash from Associates to the Caribbean simply doesn't add up. Those who have witnessed the antics of a succession of West Indies boards might counter that to pour money into the region would be akin to chucking it onto a bonfire. In the last decade the WICB has run up debts running into tens of millions of dollars. It has failed to handle sponsors or players remotely adequately and needed the income from a (poorly run) World Cup to bail it out. That the game in the Caribbean is in need of help is beyond question. But it is in even more need of some broad-minded and competent leadership. Julian Hunte, the new WICB chairman, might be such a man but he has a daunting job ahead of him.

This is not a call for more money to be poured into Associate cricket, but there has to be some kind of reality check before those looking to establish and build the game are asked to tighten their belts even more because a Full Member is down to its last few dozen administrators.

Tony Cozier, the veteran Caribbean journalist and broadcaster, has launched a scathing attack on the way the ICC funds global cricket outside the Test-playing countries.

Writing in his column which is syndicated throughout the Caribbean, Cozier was angry at the way that established regions, such as West Indies, were not allocated more money instead of so much being spent by the ICC on Associate competitions.

“Certainly there is no ICC venture more illogical or costly than the one dubbed the Inter-Continental Cup,” he wrote. “It is an annual tournament, described by the ICC as its ‘flagship first-class competition’, comprising round-robin, four-day matches between its second tier members, those one below Test status. These are countries where the game has always been based on amateur, weekend, one-day club cricket. They play no four-day domestic matches and almost certainly never will.

“Yet the ICC doles out heaven knows how much cash every year to fly them, and their own entourage of officials, across the world and to house and feed them at venues as scattered as Aberdeen, Dublin, Namibia, Toronto, Sharjah and Windhoek.

“Canada were unable to raise their strongest team for the African tour because many of their best players simply could not get time off from their jobs. The same problem affects others, rendering the tournament even less relevant.”

The ICC maintains that the competition enables players from Associate countries to gain more experience in the longer form of the game.

Samir Inamdar, the Cricket Kenya chairman, has told Cricinfo that the national elite league will proceed despite the ongoing problems affecting the Nairobi province.

Click here for more

The AGM of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association was postponed for the fourth time last week after it emerged some clubs were yet again not served with the correct documentation in time.

The meeting had been called for November 7 but Cricinfo has learned that clubs were not given adequate notice of the meeting nor were given enough time to lodge items for inclusion on the agenda. The original AGM in July ended in controversy after clubs, angry with the way the executive had become almost unaccountable, rejected the accounts and refused to allow the meeting to progress. Several subsequent dates have been announced for the AGM but none have materialised.

The increasingly shambolic NPCA has been further rocked by the resignation of David Waters as its secretary. Waters, a leading force in Kenyan cricket for many years and still a the head of the national selectors, is believed to have grown tired of the way that the NPCA executive has been operating and also that his name has been used to give authority to actions of which he has not been aware.

This latest failure to hold a meeting - the last valid AGM was in 2004 - is likely to be the last straw as far as Cricket Kenya is concerned. It seems increasingly likely that it will consider stepping in and suspending the existing executive and forcing through fresh elections, as it is entitled to do. Such an action would almost certainly be looked on favourably by the ICC which has been monitoring events in Nairobi closely.

One high-profile casualty of such a move would be Sukhbans Singh, the acting chairman of the NPCA, who has been increasing at odds with both Nairobi clubs and senior Kenyan administrators. He has also been linked with a possible attempted comeback by former KCA chairman Sharad Ghai.

A squad of 14 Kenya players are lending their support to Uganda to play two friendlies at the Lugogo Oval this weekend, to help them prepare for the World Cricket League Division Two in Namibia later this month.

Steve Tikolo, the Kenya captain, along with Thomas Odoyo and other senior players are all participating, but Kenya have given Maurice Ouma the captaincy. They also called up a couple of younger faces, Ken Migai and Moses Otieno to gain experience.

Uganda will fight it out with United Arab Emirates - who today beat Bermuda in the Intercontinental Cup - Argentina, Denmark, Oman and Namibia for the four slots reserved for the group in the 2009 World Cup qualifier.

Click here for the fixture list

Should Odumbe return? Leave your comments below

Odumbe could make his comeback before his five-year suspension has been served © AFP

Maurice Odumbe, the former Kenya captain who was banned from cricket for five year for his involvement with bookmakers, could return to the game before his five-year suspension has been served.

A report in The Standard said that Cassim Sulliman, the ICC Regional development manager and CEO of the Africa Cricket Association, had indicated that Odumbe could be allowed to resume his career if Cricket Kenya (CK) appeals to the ICC.

"I have watched Odumbe play and I think he would be an asset to Kenya cricket when he returns to action," Sulliman told the newspaper. "The best way Cricket Kenya could handle this issue is by compiling all details of the ban and writing a letter to ICC asking for leniency on the player who has already served two thirds of his ban. ICC may decide to reduce the sentence if the local body needs the player."

Tom Tikolo, CK's chief executive, said they were willing to help but they needed an approach from the player. "We cannot just write to ICC asking them for leniency over Odumbe's ban when we don't know the details of the issue," he said. "Let Odumbe meet [the] CK board and present us with the details."

Odumbe, 38, told the newspaper that while he was willing to do what the board suggested, but he was critical that it had not acted before now. "I think they should have at least taken some action earlier since the information of my ban is available with ICC and in the internet."

Odumbe was banned in 2004 after a hearing in Nairobi and an appeal by him in 2006 was unsuccessful.

What is not so clear is under what authority Sulliman made his comments. Last month he told officials in Uganda that he was working on getting three more countries ODI status within 180 days. The ICC subsequently denied any such plans existed.

The talk of Sharad Ghai’s comeback continues even though publicly he continues to deny such reports. But, as Cricinfo’s Beyond The Test World has reported in the past, he has friends in the media who continue to snipe at the current regime.

Sports Monthly has been a regular critic of the Cricket Kenya board and it has had another go with some thinly-veilled attacks on Samir Inamdar, the CK chairman. What’s more it has quotes from Ghai who denies he has any ambitions to return to the national scene.

“It’s not true,” he said on allegations he wanted to take over the CK. “as of now there is absolutely no truth in those claims, but in case of anything I will call you.”

What is clear is that Ghai and Sukhbans Singh have been canvassing opinion among the Nairobi clubs with, Cricinfo learns, lukewarm results. Singh, a former schoolmate of Ghai, was for a time his sworn enemy and even went as far as being a witness in Ghai’s trial in 2005, although he was unfortunately out of the country when the time came to appear in court.

Those who have had dealings with Ghai are of the opinion that he is unlikely to look to serve as a club representative – he is one of the Nairobi Gymkhana delegates appointed to the NPCA – without loftier ambitions.

Whether that is true or not, some in the media seem to paving the way for his return.

Team Gayner from England are the new Cricket in the Wild champions after beating defending champions Team Outram from Kenya, by 4 wickets in a last ball thriller two weeks ago.

The three-day event is designed to raise funds to support the Ol Pejeta Conservancy - a 90,000 acre wildlife park - which, it is hoped, will aid the development of schools and other local facilities.

CapitalFM has a brief report of this year's tournament:

Team Outram scored 119 for 2 wickets in 10 overs with Rob Harte and Luke Nightingale both scoring 21 (both rtd). But in reply, Team Gayner rattled in 120 for 6 wickets in 10 overs with Colm Singleton scoring 22 and Luke Nightingale taking 2/9 to take victory.

The highlight of the tournament was a hatrick taken by Joss Ridley of Team Tucker.

The tournament was umpired by Subhash Modi, Lalji Bhudia and Mohammed Khan while the scorer was Aliya Bauer. The score board operators were Charity Warungu, Danson Njenga and Wilson Bugei.

Modi who represents International Cricket Council (ICC) Affiliates Associates International Panel of Umpires said, “It was a great honor & privilege for me to be associated with this exciting, prestigious and unique Cricket in the Wild tournament for the second time”.

The foothills of Mount Kenya © Ol Pejeta Conservancy

The second Cricket in the Wild event takes place on Friday at the foothills of Mount Kenya. The three-day event, designed to raise funds to support the Ol Pejeta Conservancy - a 90,000 acre wildlife park - which, it is hoped, will aid the development of schools and other local facilities.

Each of the eight teams, split into two leagues, is required to raise a minimum of KS200,000 (USD2,900) - usually by sponsorship - to secure their place in the tournament. The cricket itself will be 10 overs per side with eight-ball overs.

Cricket in the Wild last year raised KS6m, thanks to extra fund raising efforts by all teams that participated but especially Hugh Crossley's Team from the UK who won the highest fundraising prize. These funds have been allocated to the building, rehabilitation and development of several secondary schools and medical dispensaries surrounding the conservancy.

"We were very proud that last year's tournament was won by a Kenyan team. Chris Outram's team will be back again this year to defend their title," Richard Vigne, Ol Pejeta Conservancy's director, said. "To keep the event light hearted, we will also be awarding a crate of Tusker to the most humorous sledger."

Entry will be free of charge.

The ongoing problems inside the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association - Kenya's largest and most influential province - continue to rumble on and are now having a detrimental effect on local cricket.

Click here to read the full story.

As if to underline the shambles, it has emerged that one Super League club has been docked 80 points for not fulfilling its fixtures even though seven players were on international duty. The NPCA maintains a typical shroud of secrecy about the matter.

The Standard’s overtly pro-KCA rhetoric continues unabated in a report on the farewell party thrown for outgoing coach Roger Harper.

Earlier this week we reported how a disturbingly one-sided column praising the old Kenyan Cricket Association came out just when the former KCA chairman Sharad Ghai appears to be on the comeback trail in Nairobi.

But the latest Standard take on history will raise wry smiles and/or anger among those connected to Kenyan cricket in recent years. Referring to the 2005 board elections, Mutwiri Mutuota says:

Former officials of Kenya Cricket Association were forced out office and replaced by CK in an acrimonious change of guard. Many top players either relocated to other countries or retired, leaving a very young team that needed direction. Still, players were not afforded as many top games as they would have wished. Indeed, this has been a sore point in the playing unit to-date.

A few home truths. The old KCA was booted out after intervention by the African Cricket Association which followed several years of bitter infighting. The board was at war with its own players and stakeholders and handed over debts of close to US$500,000. The national side had played two matches in as many years and, at the time of the elections, had been on strike for more than six months. What’s more, the government had intervened a few months earlier in an attempt to oust the old KCA board.

At the time of the change of board no major players “relocated and retired” even though the article tries to suggest they rebelled against the new regime. And as for players, they have had more matches in the last two years than they have ever had, and what’s more they are now on central contracts and being paid what they are worth.

A charitable explanation would be that Mutuota is ignorant of the facts, in which case he should not be writing about them. A more cynical view is that he knows exactly what he is doing.

Cricinfo makes no apology for repeating what happened to Kenyan cricket in recent years. The major national papers, who were so toothless and silent during the worst days of the old KCA, seem determined to rewrite history; when they do, we will keep reminding them of what really took place.

Cricket Kenya is set to announce the launch of a national elite league with matches starting this November.

In the aftermath of Kenya's performances at the ICC World Twenty20 there was widespread media criticism of the fact that there was no such competition, but it emerges that the board's plans were already at an advanced stage.

Click here for the full story

A stinging attack on Cricket Kenya appears in today’s Standard which is completely understandable given the dismal performance of the national team in the ICC World Twenty20. However, the rhetoric of piece is depressingly reminiscent of that trotted out by supporters of the old KCA who attempt to rewrite history to show how much better things were in the old days.

Kenya have apparently failed to turn the gains of a sensational performance in the 2003 World Cup when they became the first non-test side to reach a World Cup semi-finals. Officials adopted a business-as-usual attitude when they were supposed to turn around the sport from the crutches of a supposed one-man dictatorship as they used to pontificate during their years in the ‘opposition’.

All cricket fans have been hearing are whining and procrastination. Where is the much-touted youth programme? Even the Central Province branch, which was apparently used to propel the incumbents to high office, is becoming moribund.

Sure, there are some serious issues that have to be addressed. The editorial seems to blame the current leadership for failing to build on the success in 2003 and also for the failures of the team in the latest tournament. How quickly people forget that two years ago the players were on indefinite strike, sponsors had deserted the team in droves and nobody wanted anything to do with Kenyan cricket.

Yes, the CK board has some difficult questions to answer, and they are aware of that. So do the players, but nowhere is their role in this mentioned. They are now on central contracts and are relatively well paid - unlike pre 2005 when they often weren't paid at all.

But given that appalling mess that was handed over by the old KCA and massive debts and complete lack of public and commercial goodwill, things cannot turn round overnight. In February the side won the ICC World Cricket League. The real question is why have they gone backwards in the last six months?

Perhaps the motive behind the Standrad's editorial is partially explained by the last paragraph.

If Cricket Kenya is unable to raise the profile of the game, by arranging high-profile matches and initiating development programmes, they should let other people take charge.

Other people? Like who?

Sharad Ghai, the former chairman of the KCA, is on the comeback trail in Nairobi. Pure coincidence, obviously.

Kenya have two players in the running for the ICC Associate ODI Player of the Year award. Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo have been shortlisted for the new category. Canada's Ashish Bagai and Ryan ten Doeschate, of Netherlands, are the other players vying for the prize.

The talented Tikolo was in consistent form – his highlight a fifty against England in the World Cup - while Odoyo delivered with both bat and ball.
 
Ten Doeschate hit an unbeaten century in the World Cricket League, and added a hatful of wickets. At the World Cup which followed he struck two fifties in three matches including one against South Africa.

Bagai was a member of Canada's World Cup teams in 2003 and 2007. He came to prominence this winter with two centuries at the World Cricket League, where he was named Player of the Tournament, ahead of the World Cup.

The first ICC Awards were held four years ago, but this is the first time there will be an Associate Player of the Year. The winner will be named in Johannesburg, South Africa, on September 10 as teams gather for the initial ICC World Twenty20 championship.

Click here for the shortlists for all of the awards.

James Fitzgerald, ICC

The ICC today confirmed that it had approved a quadrangular Twenty20 tournament being played in Kenya and afforded Twenty20 International status to all the games involving teams that currently enjoy One-Day International status.

The tournament runs from September 1-4 in Nairobi and includes the national teams from Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Under current ICC regulations, all ten Full Members plus the top six Associate Members are entitled to play ODIs and, by extension, Twenty20 internationals.

As such, all matches between Kenya, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been classed as official Twenty20s while the matches involving Uganda, which is not currently one of the top six Associates, are not.

In the six-match tournament each team plays three matches with Kenya, Pakistan and Bangladesh using it as preparation for the Twenty20 Championship which runs in South Africa from September 11-24.

Botswana produced the shock of the Africa Under-19 World Cup Qualifiers when they Uganda by 27 runs to reach the semi-finals in Benoni on Monday.

Botswana's unexpected victory eliminated Tanzania from the semi-final on net run-rate after the duo along with Uganda ended up at four points each from three matches. In Wednesday's semi-finals, Uganda meets Namibia while Kenya faces Botswana. Kenya topped Pool One after conjuring up a four-wicket victory over Zambia while Namibia finished second after defeating Ghana by 172 runs, courtesy of an unbeaten century by Sean Silver.

In the Botswana-Uganda match, Botswana scored 192 for 8 after being put into bat with contributions from Karan Kapoor (54) and Nadeem Tajbhay (36) while Emmanuel Nakaana bagged 3 for 45. In turn, Uganda was dismissed for 165 in 44 overs after losing their last seven wickets for 54.

Tanzania, in their last match, carved out a 153-run victory over Nigeria. Athumani Kakonzi (70) and Seif Abdul (68) put on 123 for the second wicket to set the platform for Tanzania's 296 in 49.5 overs. Nigeria, in its target chase, were bowled out for 143.

Silver scored 101 to inspire Namibia to a 172-run victory over Ghana and featured in a 117-run second wicket partnership with Tiaan Louw (62) as Namibia scored 287 for 6. Ghana were dismissed for 115 with Elandre Oosthuizen taking 4 for 39 and Louis Petrus van der Westhuizen claiming 3 for 13.

Spinners Rakep Patel and Rohit Vekaria shared six wickets to help Kenya beat Zamibia by four wickets. Patel took 3 for 16 and Vekaria bagged 3 for 17 as Zambia were spun out for 152. Kenya achieved victory in 34.1 overs for the loss of six wickets.

The winner of the Africa Under-19 Qualifiers join Papua New Guinea (from the East Asia-Pacific Region), Ireland (from the Europe Region) and Bermuda (from the Americas Region), the ICC's 10 Full Members and hosts Malaysia at the 16-team U-19 World Cup from February 17 to March 2 2008 in Malaysia.

	Sharad Ghai © Cricinfo

Last week, in a twist that few predicted, Sharad Ghai, the former chairman of the Kenyan Cricket Association who left office in 2005, started on the comeback trail. From almost nowhere he re-emerged as one of the three delegates representing the Nairobi Gymkhana club at the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association's Special General Meeting held on Saturday July 7 to discuss, among other matters, the long-overdue overhaul of the NPCA's constitution.

The meeting followed an acrimonious Annual General Meeting of the NPCA held on June 20 at which it transpired that the NPCA executive had, in breach of its existing constitution, failed to convene any general meetings involving its member clubs for over two years. Both the NPCA acting chairman's report and the treasurer's report were rejected by the members. Following this meeting, 10 of the 14 member clubs of the NPCA who attended signed a petition of no confidence in the NPCA executive. The three delegates representing Nairobi Gymkhana subscribed to the petition.

The Nairobi Gymkhana chairman, Bharat Shah, disapproved of his own club delegates' stance and promptly replaced them, drafting himself, Ravindra Patel (the club secretary) and Ghai to represent the club in their place at the July 7 meeting.

Cricinfo had heard that Ghai had been in contact with several clubs, but given what happened when he was involved in the old Kenyan Cricket Association, few believed the rumours were anything more than that.

But it now emerges that he has received backing from two surprising sources.

Firstly, the Gymkhana club, who were owed a large sum of money by the old KCA. In 2004 they had a dispute with the board and threatened to prevent any official matches being played at their ground. Only the personal intervention of Ghai staved off a showdown, but, even so, the club was left out of pocket when the KCA was wound up.

The second ally is even more eyebrow-raising. Sukhbans Singh, the acting chairman of the NPCA, was one of leading figures in attempts to remove Ghai and the old KCA executive between 2002 and 2005. But it now seems that Singh, under fire from his own clubs, and Ghai have struck up a relationship. It is the most unlikely of alliances.

That Ghai has regained a foothold in Kenyan cricket will surprise many. When he left office in 2005 Kenyan cricket was a shambles. The board was broke – Samir Inamdar, who replaced him as board chairman, estimated that he inherited debuts of US$500,000 – and virtually all the High-Performance money from the ICC was gone. The national side was in chaos – it had played only two ODIs in the previous two years and for six months the bulk of the national team had been on strike over non-payment of monies owed. There were no major sponsors willing to be associated with the game, and other international boards gave Kenya the cold shoulder. The KCA executive had fallen out with many stakeholders, and even the minister of sport had had enough and stepped in to dissolve it.

In the intervening two years the finances have been put back on an even keel, sponsors are beginning to come back and the board has done a six-year TV and marketing deal. On the field, the side has played 28 ODIs and in February they won the World Cricket League which means they will take part in the Twenty20 World Championship in September. Internally, there has been a period of relative peace and development. There is still a long way to go but things are heading the right way.

At this stage, Ghai is only one of three representatives for one of 17 registered Nairobi clubs. But there will be many who remember Kenya cricket's recent past who will be watching events with interest. Some of them are already expressing the view that the Gymkhana post may the springboard for a tilt at something bigger, perhaps even a challenge to Inamdar in 2008.

As things stand, Coast and Rift Valley provinces, who would both strongly oppose Ghai, muster enough votes to be able to prevent him succeeding. But there is talk that Centrals, who were booted out by Cricket Kenya last month after it became apparent that, to all intents and purposes they did not exist as a viable province, may be set to mount a challenge to that decision. Centrals was the creation of the old KCA.

Cricket Kenya has postponed the board elections for a second time following a decision by the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association on Saturday to appoint a nine-man committee to look into a new constitution.

In a situation more akin the dark days of the old KCA, on June 20 the NPCA's member clubs refused to approve acting chairman Sukhbans Singh's report or to pass accounts for the last three years. Members were angry that no public meeting had been held since 2004 and that the existing NPCA board had failed to amend its constitution in accordance with an agreement made by all Kenya's stakeholders more than two years ago.

Matters came to a head because under Cricket Kenya's constitution, the NPCA, which is the country's most influential province containing most of the major clubs, could not participate in the elections for the CK board, due on July 22, while its old constitution remained in place.

At a heated meeting ten of the 17 clubs that make up the NPCA - of which 14 were present - refused to adopt the accounts and made it clear that they were deeply unhappy with the activities of the current board. The NPCA has not held any AGM or presented accounts since 2004 and its chairman, Salim Dhanji, has been in Australia since January.

Under the CK constitution and those of the other two provinces - Rift Valley and Coast - any CK board member has to be a member of a cricket club belonging to that province. But Singh is not a delegate of any club and it is believed that others are in a similar position. Under the NPCA's existing constitution, once elected they can continue to remain in office as existing officials, and it is that provision which both the clubs and CK is looking to change.

It was expected that the NPCA would adopt the provisions of a club-driven constitution which formed the basis of the new CK constitution as approved by the African Cricket Association in 2005 and which, at the time, all stakeholders bought into.

In light of the delay which will result from the NPCA assessment, CK decided to postpone the elections again to enable NPCA sufficient time to get its house in order. The NPCA meeting reportedly agreed on a timetable to consult with their member clubs and to finalise the form of a new constitution within 75 days of their meeting. CK announced that they supported this fresh initiative by the NPCA which, despite the lengthy delay, would resolve the impasse and permit national elections to take place as soon as the new NPCA constitution was in place.

It is understood that some of the NPCA executive were against another delay and wanted to hold the elections under the existing constitution but this was strongly opposed by CK who had made it clear that all NPCA's nominees to the CK board would have to first be approved by the NPCA's member clubs.

However, the CK executive is unlikely to allow an open-ended delay and under its own rules, which all provinces accepted in 2005, it could impose the same constitution it operates under on the NPCA if it felt that the issue was not being seriously addressed.

Given that the NPCA executive has had more than two years to resolve this issue, there are many who feel that Cricket Kenya would be well within its rights to do this.

Cricket Kenya is on the verge of offering its leading players one-year contracts.

The board has agreed terms with the players, Roger Harper, the coach, has given his views and the national selectors are now drawing up a final list of between 18 and 20 names who will be invited to sign the contracts. The selectors also need to divide the players into three categories, based on seniority and ability, which will determine how much they get paid.

"They will be offered one-year deals," Samir Inamdar, the board's chairman, told Cricinfo. "This has been made possible by the money we received from winning the World Cricket League and also from the Nimbus TV deal.

"Those chosen will receive a regular monthly salary as well as appearance fees for ODIs. For four-day Intercontinental Cup games they will get the equivalent fee for three ODIs."

The board has also offered to share a third of prize-money and appearance money with squad players. And people can still be picked from outside those on central contracts, but they will be paid on a match-by-match basis.

A few leading Kenya players have contracts overseas and Inamdar stressed that these could continue subject to the prior agreement of the board. Their central contracts will be suspended for the period they are employed playing cricket elsewhere.

Inamdar said that at the moment the contracts were for one years and the situation would be reviewed after that. Much depends on whether the board is able to attract new sponsors and also how much the board's share of the new ICC media deal with ESPN brings in.

Cricket Kenya has confirmed that India A will tour Kenya in late July or early August to play two four-day matches as well as taking part in a one-day series which will involve at least one other country's A team.

The deal was brokered by Samir Inamdar, CK's chairman, while he was in India attending the Afro-Asia Cup. Indian board officials told him that they were keen to attract another side to ensure there was a high level of competition, and Sri Lanka A are also believed to be interested and an offer has been made to West Indies.

Cricket Kenya is hoping to stage some international Twenty20 matches in Nairobi in early September in the build-up to the Twenty20 World Championships in South Africa. Pakistan and Bangladesh have expressed interest.

Cricket Kenya (CK) has suspended its Central province ahead of next month's board elections.

"The province has not promoted any form of the game in their area of jurisdiction," Samir Inamdar, CK's chairman, told Cricinfo. "They have less than the prescribed three active clubs as required for the formation of branches. The decision to suspend their membership of CK was unanimously reached in a special council meeting. "

The province was set up by the old Kenyan Cricket Association, and at the time Cricinfo reported that it appeared to have been created to give the existing board extra votes as there was little evidence of any meaningful cricket being played there.

When the old KCA executive was ousted in May 2005, the new board decided to embrace Centrals (and Rift Valley, another disputed new province) and try to promote the game there.
To safeguard the possibility that a province could not simply be guaranteed its place as a member with representation rights without ensuring that it had a minimal level of cricket being played within it, it was decided, in keeping with past practice, that a province had to have a minimum of three cricket-playing clubs to remain as a provincial affiliate.

While in Rift Valley that faith has been justified - there are now 12 active clubs in the region - in Centrals there has been almost no activity Inamdar said: "the province is at present, from a cricketing perspective, totally moribund".

S Bindal, Centrals' provincial representative, never attended any board or council meeting and, as a result, lost his seat under CK rules.

Joshua Kiragu, the Centrals chairman, was appointed as CK's development convenor. "He was given the task of co-ordinating the Cricket Without Boundaries project in Western Province," Inamdar said. "The board had raised queries about the application of certain funding given to him for this project and despite repeated requests he failed to report to the CEO and/or the treasurer on this issue." The CK executive has resolved to remove him from his seat on the ground that he too has failed to attend any board or council meetings for over a year. The executive voted to suspend Central, citing the fact that "it had no active cricket being played, no real structure, no constitution and no recognised officials".

CK officials believe that cricket has a future in the region and they will attempt to relaunch the game when new and more reliable people can be found. "There is great potential there particularly among schools," Inamdar said, "and a good possible source of funding from the many high profile businesses and industries in the vicinity."

Kenya is likely to host the next Afro-Asia Cup which will be held in June next year, the Asian Cricket Council has announced.

The hosting alternates between Africa and Asia and only time there is a gap in the international calendar in the next two years is in the second, third and fourth weeks of June 2008, hence the timing of the competition.

"The likely venue is Kenya where the facilities and weather would be ideal," Syed Ashraful Haq, the ACC chief executive, said. Money raised by the tournament is split 70% to the host association, 20% to the visitors and 10% to the Sightsavers charity.

The last major tournament hosted in Kenya was the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy but there were concerns raised at the time about the organisation and support from the local population. Given that the 2005 event was held in South Africa, the choice was between Zimbabwe and Kenya, and the deteriorating political and social situation in Zimbabwe made that to risky an option.

Cricket Kenya is hoping to launch a four-day national competition later this year providing that sponsors can be found to underwrite the costs of the event.

A Kenya Select side recently took part in Zimbabwe's first-class Logan Cup, drawing two and losing two of their four four-day matches. They finished the tour being defeated by a Zimbabwe A side. While the results were disappointing, what was clear was that many of the Kenyan players were not equipped to play the longer form of the game and good positions were too often squandered. For most, with the exception of the Intercontinental Cup, it was their first exposure to anything other than one-day matches.

"Four-day cricket is something which we are plainly not used to," Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya's chairman, told Cricinfo. "And if there is anything we need to turn our attention to at a national level it is the longer version of the game. We simply do not play this game at home and it is vital that we start to play it and play it regularly.

"It is heartening that Zimbabwe allowed us to participate in this tournament, if only to demonstrate our weakness in this form of cricket. I believe that the boys will have learned from this experience."

The main obstacles facing Cricket Kenya are funding and availability of players. Zimbabwe pay for the running of Logan Cup out of the US$11.5 million they receive from the ICC from the World Cup. Kenya only receive around US$215,000 which has to cover the salaries of the national players and coach, administration costs, and grassroots funding. There is nothing spare. That is why Inamdar hopes to get a sponsor in to cover the costs of transporting sides between Nairobi and Mombasa, as well as paying for accommodation and other expenses.

It will also be hard to persuade people to take time off work to play - cricket in Kenya is almost all played at weekends - but Inamdar said that if games were scheduled sensibly, probably in school holidays, then the bulk of players should be able to take part.

Although no format has been discussed, it seems likely that there would be four teams, which is the minimum needed to make the competition meaningful. Two would come from the traditional cricketing centre of Nairobi, one from the coast (Mombasa) and another from the other regions such as Rift Valley, bolstered, if needs be, from Nairobi. This is no different to Zimbabwe where many regional sides are in effect filled with players bussed in from Harare.

Given that Zimbabwe's return to Test cricket may well be stalled, it is possible that they might be lured to Kenya to join in the competition as Kenya did in the Logan Cup. That would give the tournament an added spark and both locals and the Zimbaweans would learn much from the experience.

If the board can get this competition up and running then it will give Kenya a significant advantage in the Intercontinental Cup and also in persuading Full Member countries than they can get meaningful cricket if they visit Kenya. All that's needed now is the sponsor ...

Fast bowler Peter Ongondo headed a Nairobi Province Cricket Association NPCA) Select side which arrived in Dar es Salaam for a four one-dayers against the Tanzanian national side.

"Most of our players are under-19 and they need an experienced person like Ongondo to motivate them," David Asiji, one of the team’s coaches, said.

Zully Rehemtulla, the Tanzania Cricket Association chairman, explained the matches were preparation for the World Division III Cricket League in Australia which starts at the end of the month.

NPCA squad Peter Ongondo, Nelson Odhiambo, Moses Otieno, Lawrence Okoth, Dominic Wesonga, Francis Otieno, Shashanka Maheshwari, Peter Kituku, David Maina, Ken Migai, Abdul Wajmi, Benjamin Oluga, Pritesh Limbachia, Keval Patel, Shem Ng’oche, Ritin Limbani.

Kenya Select 342 (Obanda 76, Suji 76) and 196 for 9 (Suji 48, C Obuya 47*, D Obuya 32; S. Mwakayeni 5-42) drew with Northerns 234 (Chigumbura 69, Mufambisi 60, Raza Butt 34; Varaiya 4-49, Odhiambo 3-56, Luseno 2-61) and 303 for 9 (Chigumbura 79, Masvaure 50*, Varaiya 4-73)

The tie between Kenya Select and Northerns finished in a thrilling draw after bad light ended play six overs early with the Kenyans needing one wicket and Northerns two runs shy of chasing down a target of 305. Click here for a full report.

Kenya Select 253 (Obuya 103, Obanda 57, Muzarabani 4-51) and 312 for 7 (Obanda 114, Mishra 68, Ouma 67) drew with Centrals 282 (Chkunya 53, Nyathi 53*, Varaiya 6-68, Luseno 3-38) and 78 for 4 (Odihambo 3-19)

Kenya Select finally got some points on the board in the Logan Cup after two successive defeats, but they were unable to force a victory against Centrals at Kwekwe Sports Club. But it was the performance of three of their youngsters - Alex Obanda, Tanmay Mishra and Hiren Varaiya - which really stood out.

For the first time, Kenya had the better of a match, even though they conceded a first-innings lead. On the first morning they slid to 9 for 3 before Obanda and Mishra stopped the rot and then Collins Obuya struck his maiden first-class hundred.

Centrals reply was solid, with their top five all making starts, but the last three wickets produced 105 runs to give them a slender lead. Varaiya was the outstanding bowler, with 6 for 68 off 33.2 overs.

Kenya made a good start second time around, closing the third day on 145 for 3, Maurice Ouma's quickfire 67 leading the charge. Faced with a tough choice of pressing for victory by offering Centrals a chance to chase a target or batting out time, Kenya opted for the latter. Mishra made his second fifty of the match, but 19-year-old Obanda was the star, his 114 underlining his burgeoning reputation.

Centrals were left with an almost impossible target of making 282 from 42 overs, and once Nehemiah Odhiambo reduced them to 1 for 2, they decided to play out time.

Tanzania are gearing up for a series of friendlies against Kenya in preparation for division three of the World Cricket League which will be held in Australia, in June.

Zully Rehemtullah, the Tanzania Cricket Association’s chairman, told The Kenya Times that he expected his side to arrive on May 10.

More details at their website.

Kenya Select went down their second defeat in the Logan Cup, losing to Easterns by seven wickets at Mutare. We are unable to get more than scant outlines of what happened.

Easterns 382 (Mutizwa 107, Mawoyo 69) and 140 for 3 (Mawoyo 59*, Marumisa 59) beat Kenya Select 199 (Ouma 116, Maruma 6-40, Utseya 3-50) and 332 (Obuya 105, Obuya 69, Utseya 6-91) by seven wickets

We regret that we have no official scorecard for this match at the moment as Zimbabwe Cricket is unable to provide any to the media. Local reporting restrictions mean we have no official representative in the country, although if anyone has access to the cards we would be delighted to hear from them

The fixtures for the first half of the 2007-08 Intercontinental Cup have been released by the ICC.

The tournament undergoes a change of format once again, with the group stages scrapped and a round-robin system introduced. This will mean that the eight participants play seven matches after the two-year span of the competition.

The event kicks off on June 28 when Canada, who meet Ireland in the final of the 2006-07 tournament at Leicester between May 22 and 25, meet Netherlands in Toronto.

Scotland play back-to-back matches against Ireland and Netherlands at the start of August, while Bermuda will be in Europe to take on the same opponents at the end of the month.

The schedule shows that Bermuda are the busiest country in 2007 with four matches, all away from home. In addition to their European trip, they play Kenya in Nairobi at the start of November and from there go straight to the meet UAE.

Namibia, on the other hand, have only one game inked in, while Kenya have two.

Westerns 201 (Williams 59, Varaiya 3-44, Obuya 3-45) and 175 for 6 (Coventry 76) need beat Kenya Select 218 (Mishra 89, Mupariwa 4-27, Dabengwa 4-45) and 158 (Dabengwa 4-39) by four wickets

Scorecard

We hope to have a report from this match shortly.

We regret that we have no official scorecard for this match at the moment as Zimbabwe Cricket is unable to provide any to the media. Local reporting restrictions mean we have no official representative in the country, although if anyone has access to the cards we would be delighted to hear from them.

Martin Williamson has written an article which highlights the pressures players for Associate countries face as they compete with the budgets of the Full Members.

In expanding the game, the ICC has, rightly, offered more matches to the Associates. On top of any ODIs they can persuade Full Member countries to give them, as well as tournaments they arrange among themselves, they participate in the Intercontinental Cup, the World Cricket League and the four-yearly ICC Trophy. But that expansion has not taken into account that the players remain amateur.

The flaw in the ICC's plan is that the increased demands have not been backed by additional funding. In the year ending April 30, 2007, Scotland were scheduled to play 46 days of cricket (including warm-ups for tournaments) as a national side; the numbers for the other Associates are similar - Bermuda 45, Canada 43, Ireland 42, Kenya 37, Netherlands 24. That does include time spent preparing, travelling and acclimatising.

The direct funding they receive for that from the ICC amounts to US$215,000, of which $125,000 is not actually handed over to the boards but is retained by the ICC and used to offset other costs, such as paying for coaches and hosting training camps. Compare that with the lowest-ranked Full Member, Zimbabwe, who will receive around US$10 million with no requirement to account for how it is spent. In the same period, they had 37 days cricket scheduled. That really puts into perspective Ireland's achievement in Jamaica.

Dates for the second Ol Pejeta "Cricket in the Wild" tournament in Kenya have been confirmed - the competition will begin on Friday September 28.

The three-day event is designed to raise funds to support the Ol Pejeta Conservancy - a 90,000 acre wildlife park at the foothills of Mount Kenya - which, it is hoped, will help with the development of schools and other local facilities.

Each of the eight teams, split into two leagues, is required to raise a minimum of KSh200,000 (USD 2900) - usually by sponsorship - to secure their place in the tournament. The cricket itself will be 10:10 (10 overs per side) with eight-ball overs.

The winner receives a trophy, and there will be a special prize for the most humorous sledge, at the umpire's discretion.

While Steve Tikolo, the Kenya captain, was single handedly holding up England's march to victory, with a resolute 76, he was unaware that his father had died. Tom, Steve's brother and the current chief executive of Cricket Kenya, withheld the news from his younger sibling "because if it had got out, Steve would have been unable to concentrate" on his batting and captaincy.

Mzee Rueben Tikolo died at his home, in Eshirotsa Eshirumbe, aged 72.

Steve Tikolo, Kenya's captain, has pleaded for more international exposure for his side, as well as the other leading Associates.

Kenya exited the World Cup after losing to England on Saturday, but Tikolo said that unless the major countries agreed to play the Associates, then the standards would never improve.

"You need more high-level games," Tikolo said. "You can't come here without playing at this level consistently. If you look at our calendar now, what we are expecting is a Twenty20 World Cup in September. Between then and now there's nothing for us.

"If you want the Associates to come up, you have to give them more games, it's as simple as that."

Kenya, like the other Associates, have struggled to persuade the major nations to play them. In the last year, Kenya have played 18 ODIs, of which all have been against the Associates or Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Bangladesh, who themselves struggle to get fixtures against major countries, have been co-operative, while Zimbabwe are believed to have come under intense pressure from the ICC to actually take to the field.

Kenyan cricket was boosted by Tikolo's assurance that he was not ready to retire. "I want to play for Kenya for the next few years to see this team develop into a fine unit," he explained.

	Going easy on the minnows? © Getty Images

TV viewers might have noticed that commentators have been very chartable to the so-called minnows during this World Cup so far. For example, when Zimbabwe were in the Caribbean in May, the experts made no attempt to hide their feelings that they were not fit to play international cricket. But even when they tied with Ireland on Saturday, there was hardly a critical word. And even when Bermuda and Netherlands, for example, have been slaughtered, the men in the box have been remarkably jolly about them.

Robert Craddock, writing in The Australian, thinks he knows why.

It is understood commentators have been told by Global Cricket Corp producers that it frowns on them denigrating the minnows. However, it is deemed acceptable for commentators to call an event a mismatch but not to say some of the nations do not deserve to be in the tournament.

Some commentators who agree with the directive and feel the minnows are a necessary part of global expansion are happy to abide by it. Others, who feel the tournament has been devalued by their presence, would rather speak their mind.

And Craddock concluded by saying that some of the players themselves are aware of the real picture.

The widespread feeling that the minnows are enjoying every moment of their matches against the big boys is wide of the mark. Several Dutch players privately conceded they feel embarrassed by their team's efforts.

Keep your eyes and ears open and see if what you are watching tallies with what you are being told.

	© The Nation

Maurice Odumbe, the former golden boy of Kenyan cricket who was subsequently banned for five years for associating with known bookmakers, is now forging a new career on local television and radio. He has recently featured in a few advertisements and is also commentating on sports for a local radio station.

In a feature in The Nation, Odumbe reveals that he is happy with his new role.

“I always wanted to do something before the cameras. When the opportunity presented itself I could not just let it pass.”

He also said that he is considering standing in the next general election. “Sports and showbiz are multi-billion industries which have not been properly harnessed for the benefit of artistes and sports personalities due to poor legislation.”

(Leave your thoughts in the comments below)

Following his side's 21-run defeat to the West Indies yesterday, Steve Tikolo, the Kenya captain, has criticised the lack of exposure and matches Associate cricket is afforded.

"The ICC is looking to spread the game globally," he said, "[but] I don't see how they are going to do it unless they get us involved in cricket activities. To be playing at this level, you have to be playing against these guys regularly. Playing them in World Cup warm-up matches and big tournaments alone is not good enough.

"We need quality opposition to improve and we are not getting that."

Tikolo led Kenya to winning the World Cricket League (WCL) in Nairobi last month, a tournament which pitted the top six Associates against each other. While the standard of cricket was generally good, the overwhelming response from the players was that they can only improve if they play full-member nations more regularly. Nevertheless, and despite the 21-run defeat yesterday, Tikolo was pleased with Kenya's performance.

"It was a fruitful exercise, since the main aim was to try and get some good combinations going in the team, and I think we did this," he said. "Obviously, we have another friendly game on Thursday, and we will try and give the guys who did not have a go a chance then to try and finalise our first 11.

"We bowled well at the start of their innings, but we let them get too many runs in the latter stages. I thought also that we batted well, but lost some batsmen in the middle, otherwise it would have been a different result."

Kenya face the Netherlands in their second warm-up match on Thursday at the Trelawny Stadium in Jamaica.

Chloe Saltau speaks to Tom Tikolo, the Kenya captain, in today's Age in Australia.

As always, though, much will depend on Tikolo as the general at the top of the order, and with his artful off-breaks, if the team is to replicate the dreamy success of 2003, when Kenya lost to Australia in a Super Six game best remembered for Brett Lee's hat-trick. He is desperate to prove Kenya's performance in that tournament was not an aberration.

"Save for what happened after that, cricket going down in Kenya, that was the most memorable time of my career. To compete the way we did, make it to the finals, to be the team captain, these will be my memories for a long, long time to come," said Tikolo.

"We are capable of that. What we are planning is to go to the World Cup and be competitive. We don't just want to make up numbers."

Fans in Kutch – a district of Gujarat in western India – will be glued to their TVs for the forthcoming World Cup, and not just to watch India. Two Kutchi-born players - Rajesh Bhudia and Malhar Patel - are playing for Kenya.

“Our Patel community which has a large population from here in Kenya is also known by the name of Kanabi and we have there Kanabi’s Sports Club which is very dominating in the cricketing world in that country. We now understand from there that Rajesh Bhudia and Malhar Patel, both belonging to the Patel community, have found place on the Kenyan team for the World Cup 2007,’’ said Kirti Varsani, of Madhapar village near here.

More on this at ExpressIndia.com

Tanmay Mishra came second in the annual Sportsman-of-the-Year awards in Kenya, narrowly beaten by Alex Kipchirchir. More at CapitalFM.

The Kenyan media has rounded on the country’s players after they stopped training in a dispute over non payment of match fees for the cancelled game against Canada in January. Whereas player strikes were common during the time of the old Kenyan Cricket Association, things have moved on, and the players find themselves attacked for their latest attempts to blackmail the board.

An editorial in The Standard says:-

Players also ought to put patriotism before cash for the national good. While we appreciate that they have families to feed, staging a strike over a match that was not played is regrettable.

In The Nation, Sulubu Tuva looks at the history behind the dispute and concludes:-

It is so sad now that even with the new dispensation in the form of Cricket Kenya led by Samir Inamdar with Tom Tikolo as chief executive, the players are resorting to the same old habits of holding the cricket administrators to ransom.

Will we never learn? Those in cricket need to create trust amongst themselves. These matters are not limited to just Kenya. They are global and will continue to exist. What we need to see is that the players find a more civilised way to deal with these issues.

And on Cricinfo, Martin Williamson adopted a similar line, pointing out that this way of approaching issues will harm the game and the players in the long-term:-

The action by the players ... was at best ill advised, at worst utter stupidity. It sent a message to the wider community that nothing had changed, that Kenyan cricket was still a disorganised and dysfunctional shambles. The reality is quite different, but the damage has been done.

It also seems likely that a few players tried to be smart and used the media to try to force Cricket Kenya's hand. The story was leaked and embellished. What was written up as a sit-in was in reality a planned meeting to discuss the issue. In the end, the only losers are the players themselves. If a sponsor cannot be found then they will be the ones who directly lose out.

It won't get many column inches in the mainstream cricket press, but the World Cricket League, which started in Nairobi yesterday and continues into next week, features the best of the rest, the six sides just under the ten Test-playing countries. For the two finalists, the rewards are bountiful - a place among the big boys in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa this September, along with $250,000. For countries used to surviving on annual handouts from the ICC of less than $200,000, that's big money.

With the exception of Bermuda, cricket is not a mainstream sport in any of the participants. And yet it survives, and in some instances thrives, despite the lack of attention and a relatively small number of enthusiasts.

The ICC, who do sterling work in supporting the game's second and third tiers, will rightly use the event to highlight that cricket is not just about the Indians and Australias of the world.

But there remains a nagging worry. The ICC boasts that the game is spreading across the world. But is that right? Is it taking root or is it surviving because more people from its hotbed - south-east Asia - are emigrating and keeping it alive for the duration of their careers?

In last year's Wisden Almanack, Matthew Engel raised this very issue. "Overwhelmingly, the game in non-traditional countries is played by expatriates, mostly South Asian. Journalists were kidded into believing that cricket was about to burst on China, on the basis of some warm comments by civil servants and a couple of coaching courses. I have seen not one shred of evidence to back this up. Are the kids playing with tapeballs on the streets of Shanghai? Are they heck!"

Take Canada. Of the squad in Nairobi at the moment, only three were born in the country, and two of those are over 35. Of the rest, five come from the Caribbean, four from India and each from Pakistan and Uganda. Whereas other Associates have a smattering of expats, Canada are utterly reliant on them.

Engel's comment attracted fierce criticism from those who either argued that England had more than their share of "imports" or that the game only spread in Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Caribbean through expats playing it in the first place.

The worry in some countries is that rather the game is not being continued by the second and third generations but is only being maintained by a steady flow of new immigrants

With regards to England, yes there have been quite a few non English-born players who have been picked for the side, but the game still has a massive stronghold in the country. The selection has been more about improving a solid side. And as for the ex-pats argument? Well, yes, but that's the crucial point. In the regions flagged the game was brought in but it was then embraced by the indigenous population and taken on as their own. This is exemplified no better than in CLR James's seminal work, Beyond A Boundary.

The worry in some countries - and again I come back to Canada - is that rather the game is not being continued by the second and third generations but is only being maintained by a steady flow of new immigrants. Canada's cricket heritage is rich but there is little sign that it has been built on. This is best underlined by the selection of former West Indies international Anderson Cummins. Forty years old and without a major match to his name since 1995-96, he made his debut in Mombasa last week. What message does that send out about the strength in depth of cricket in Canada?

It's not just Canada. Look at the USA, whose 2004 Champions Trophy side was a collection of ageing expats whose performances verged on the disgraceful. And the UAE, which is almost entirely dependant on its ex-pat workforce to keep the game alive.

Cricket's expansion should not be about filling teams with expats and expecting the locals to get excited about it. The only way cricket can gain a foothold in emerging countries is by actually getting the indigenous population to embrace the game, and two excellent examples where this is happening are Nepal and Uganda.

Anderson Cummins of Barbados, West Inbies ... and now Canada © Eddie Norfolk

Does it matter? Yes, because as the ICC looks to develop the game in as many places as possible, that means the financial cake has to be cut in ever thinner slices. The ICC needs to concentrate on a smaller number of countries where the chances of the game taking off. It is invidious that Uganda gets the same basic allowance as Belgium.

Cricket is in trouble in its traditional homes in Africa - Zimbabwe are hell-bent on destruction and South Africa seems to be falling out of love with the game. So efforts should be made in Uganda . And in Asia, which everyone accepts is the game's stronghold, a side like Nepal should really be given the leg up. It's about targeting rather than a scattergun approach.

In fairness to the ICC, they have a tough time and a lot of countries scrambling for a share of the spoils. It's about weeding out the weak and really looking to grow the game in areas where it has the best chance of taking root. It's an almost impossible ask. Look at the repeated failure of American Football to crack Europe ... and if football itself still battles for acceptance outside expats and schools in the USA, then the size of the ICC's task becomes clear.

Of course expats have a key role to play in expansion. But if the game is basically played by them, is it the game spreading or is it more about diehards clinging to the traditions of their homelands? In the UK there are baseball and American football sides, but they are almost all expat Americans and so few would seriously claim the games have taken hold. However, basketball and ice hockey are widely played by locals, boosted by some imported players and expats, and, crucially, the national side can stand on its own two feet. That's the difference.

	Match cancelled ... a blackboard breaks the bad news after the Kenya-Canada game was called off © Eddie Norfolk

Astounding as it seems, the slanted reporting from certain journalists in Kenya's Nation newspaper has continued in recent weeks.

The Nation's cricket coverage is now so slanted as to be damaging its international reputation, as well as its domestic one. It is Kenya's leading and most respected newspaper and yet it one or two of its staff repeatedly attack the board of Cricket Kenya, whereas at the height of the battle between stakeholders and the old Kenyan Cricket Association it barely raised a whimper.

Skewed reporting aside, other questions need to be asked. Why does the Nation pay so little time actually talking to board officials and players? Tsuma is not rated by most of the team and that accounts for the fact they will not deal with him. Earlier this month they attacked Cricket Kenya's deal with Nimbus, calling the details "sketchy". Well, Cricinfo knew the details because we asked. But no reporter from The Nation attended the press conference despite assurances from Chris Tsuma and Richard Mwangi that they would be there. The excuses given were lame and they made no attempt to follow up.

And match coverage has been dismal. The reports on the Bermuda tri-series last November were almost non existent, even thought the board sent daily updates. Criticism of the lack of progress made by CK has been a regular feature of the paper's cricket coverage, but no mention has been made of the new league established in Rift Valley, for example, nor of the fact that Kenya have played 16 ODIs this year, in contrast to two in the previous 30 months.

With regards to the Tri-Series in Mombasa, the paper gave lip service to matches with the bare minimum of coverage. They did manage to comment on the illness which caused the cancellation of last weekend’s Kenya-Canada match, claiming that “some of the gloss” was taken off the event.

As it was, Kenya won the tournament. Not that that would appease Chris Tsuma, whose one-eyed view of the game is well documented. At the start of the year he wrote: "Not much is expected from the team whose only international match practice since then have been restricted to minor skirmishes with fellow minnows Canada, Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland, Namibia with a splash of India and Pakistan (in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy) and Bangladesh thrown in."

He went on to refer to a "lack of any development programmes, funding and absence of a competitive domestic competition". A five-minute phone call to any of the board's senior officials would clear all that up, but he prefers to write without the distraction of such research.

All cricketers in Kenya have a right to know the truth and they also have a right to be told the truth. While newspapers should hold those running sports, governments etc to account, they have a duty to present the facts. The sad reality here is that The Nation is guilty of failing in that regard where it's cricket coverage is concerned.

People are not stupid and they know what is happening. They are aware of the legacy inherited by Cricket Kenya, and they aware that there is progress, however slow it might be. At the end of the day, the only loser is the reputation of a fine newspaper. Its senior editors owe it to their readers to intervene and end the constant and often slanted sniping at Cricket Kenya . They should also ask what is driving Tsuma’s attacks.

We would all be interested to know what they find. The way they cover the World Cricket League, the most important cricketing event in the country since the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy, will be fascinating to see.

Martin Williamson looks at what message is being sent to the Associates by the ICC deciding to appoint Darrell Hair to officiate in their tournament ... and do the ICC even know where they stand.

So Darrell Hair has been appointed to stand in the triangular one-day series in Mombasa next week, the first time he will don the white coat since that gloomy Sunday afternoon at The Oval in August when his world turned on its head.

The announcement - which caught the ICC on the hop as it only intended to release the news on Sunday - caused, inevitably, a flurry of media comment. Some were surprised that Hair was still an umpire, so intense was the criticism of him between the Oval Test and the ICC's decision to bar him from standing in major matches which followed in November.

There are two sides to this. The first is that this is actually a really good move. Hair, for all his stubbornness, was, up to four months ago, one of the top officials in the game, a fact underlined by the ICC's own internal rankings which placed him second only to Simon Taufel. There is no doubt that in Kenya his presence will benefit sides who will for the first time play in a game with such a senior official.

Hair himself will receive a warm welcome. Mombasa Sports Club, which is the home ground of Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya's chairman, is a delightful venue and the people there go out of their way to make all visitors feel at home. A few overseas reporters may make their way to the coastal town, but by and large he should enjoy his trip.

But there have to be questions asked of senior ICC officials as to what has changed in the last two months? In November, Percy Sonn, the ICC's president who has a habit of speaking before necessarily thinking, said that the ICC executive board had "come to the conclusion that they've lost confidence in Mr Hair". While Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has always said he hoped to find a way to keep Hair in the game, he too admitted that the decision was right. Most of those close to the decision-making process left Dubai believing that Hair would not stand in any international match again.

As an umpire, Hair clearly is good enough. So why can he stand here and not in more important matches?
If Hair was not deemed fit by the ICC to umpire then - and the key here is that nobody questioned his decision-making ability - what has changed? The ICC have spent today vociferously stressing that the ban was for Full Member matches only. But surely, either he is fit or he is not.

Perhaps even they don't actually know what they agreed or the best way forward. When Sonn was asked at the November meeting to clarify details regarding Hair's future, he refused, and when pressed snapped at reporters: "You are free to leave if you want. We are not giving any more details." Perhaps Percy was not exactly on message, or perhaps he was as confused as the rest of us.

The Mombasa tournament involves three of the six leading Associates, all of whom will be playing in the World Cup. These are among the best of the rest, and the matches are accorded full ODI status by the ICC. In effect, there is a danger that people will interpret this as the ICC saying that they have no faith in Hair but that the Associates aren't really that important.

This is a unique situation. The ICC could argue with any other official - including Hair's two colleagues also standing in Mombasa - that they were not quite good enough to make the transition from this level to the Elite. But that's not an issue or an excuse here. As an umpire, Hair clearly is good enough. So why can he stand here and not in more important matches? As with every aspect of this sorry episode, the ICC has failed to be clear or transparent in its handling and once more we can expect more smokescreens and sidestepping.

And so, while the Associates ponder just how important they are to the ICC, Hair, who arrives in Mombasa on Monday, is left yet again to face the media on his own. It's something he has become used to in recent months.

Veteran Kenyan wicketkeeper-batsman Kennedy Otieno has been left out of the squad for the forthcoming World Cricket League after failing to make himself available for the national training camp. Click here for more

Nick Deverell has a report at CricketEurope of a Rift Valley Sports Club Invitational XI beating Methlick CC, from Scotland.

Tom Tikolo, elder brother of Steve and the former Kenya captain, has been awarded the Head of State’s Commendation (HSC Civilian Division) in the President’s Jamhuri day honours list.

Mr. Tikolo was born in 1961. He is the first Kenyan of African descent to be selected to the Kenya National Cricket Team in September, 1980 and subsequently became its Captain in June 1986. He was also elected to the Cricket Association in Kenya and also worked for the International Cricket Association. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Cricket Kenya and Tournament Director of the Africa Cricket Association. He is awarded the Head of State’s Commendation (HSC- Civilian Division) for his commendable achievements in promoting cricket in the country.

Via CricketEurope.

Nick Deverell provides an excellent, comprehensive timeline and round-up of Kenya's year in 2006 over at Cricket Europe.

Do you support Kenya? Let us know your thoughts on their year by leaving a comment.

Our old friend Chris Tsuma has used the season of goodwill to all men to have another one of his digs at Cricket Kenya, although at least this time he has stopped short of saying that the return of Sharad Ghai would signal the dawn of a new era of unheralded success.

In his year-end round-up in The Nation, Tsuma was faced with a problem. The new board had ensured the national team played more ODIs in the last 12 months than in the previous three years, and had also signed a lucrative TV deal which would ensure that funds went directly to the game in Kenya, something that previous deals had been accused of not doing. So what could he take a pop at?

Easy. Why were Kenya not hosting home series against a Test nation or even A-team matches against leading countries. Tsuma, never one to let detail get in the way of a good attack, seems to overlook the reluctance of major countries to tour minnows – ask Bangladesh for starters. But, he then has a go at the board for the results – two whitewashes – when they did get major opposition from Australia and Bangladesh.

For sure there is much room for improvement, but there is also, as he well knows, much baggage to be lost. Kenya have taken steps to build for the future, but it will take time. A little support from the country’s main newspaper might not go amiss. Just don’t expect it from Tsuma.

The countdown for the 2009 women's World Cup begins this Friday when four African countries will assemble in Nairobi, Kenya for the start of the World Cup regional qualifiers.

Joining the host nation Kenya will be Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Uganda and the one-day competition will be played in a simple round-robin format, with the winner heading to the next qualifying stage, a tournament in Pakistan at the end of next year. Eight teams will vie for two spots at the 2009 World Cup in Australia.

Click here for the full story.

Martin Williamson reviews the Kenya-Bermuda one-day series and looks at what the games mean for both sides

Although the three-match one-day series between Kenya and Bermuda hardly registered on world cricket's Richter scale, in the battle for supremacy among the game's second string it had greater significance. And with the World Cup less than four months away, it provided a much-needed fillip to the Kenyans but left Bermuda with many more questions than answers.

The 3-0 scoreline does not flatter Kenya who outbatted and outbowled Bermuda, and who certainly looked the far more professional and fitter side in the field

They came into the series under pressure to perform after some indifferent results. They also needed to start nailing down exactly who would be in their World Cup squad. By the time they wrapped up the series whitewash yesterday evening, the selectors should have had far more of an idea of who will be travelling to the Caribbean in March.

The form of the impressive young batsman Tanmay Mishra and the slow left-armer Hiren Varaiya were real highlights. There remain questions at the top of the order, but Malhar Patel did enough in his one outing to give him a real chance of securing the No. 3 slot with some solid performances in January's World Cricket League in Nairobi.

There is also a sneaking feeling that Kennedy Otieno, the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman who chose to play club cricket in Australia rather than this, may have overplayed his hand. He wasn't missed as much as perhaps he thought he might have been and he is now far from certain to be recalled.

It also seems that those who have chosen to live overseas - such as Hitesh Modi - or play hard to get - such as Ravi Shah - are also out of the reckoning. While both will be missed, the selectors are running out of time to experiment and pander to personal whims and they are to be applauded if they stick with what they have from here on in.

And what about Bermuda? Well, while Kenya scrape by on scraps, they have a massive $11 million investment to underpin their development. However, as lottery winners often discover, money does not buy happiness. The last few months have been dogged by rifts between players and the board, as well as discipline issues, and on the evidence of this series, not only have they not progressed, they might have even taken a step backwards.

The greatest worry for Gus Logie, their coach, is the lack of fitness. Bermuda are not the youngest side, but not are they are approaching the kind of geriatric feel that blighted the USA's participation in the 2004 Champions Trophy either. But several of their side are carrying excess baggage and, in the unforgiving world of one-day cricket, that matters. They also lacked the mental steel which is needed at the highest level.

Time for both sides is running out. But while the Kenyans appear to be getting their house in some kind of order just in time, Bermuda are struggling. They now travel to South Africa where they will face the Netherlands, one of the stronger Associates, and Canada, possibly the weakest side taking part in the World Cup. Unless they show a marked improvement on their Mombasa performances, more gloom awaits them.

The Royal Gazette carries a report about the troubles the Bermuda players have had in Kenya which include a man being gunned down outside their hotel in Nairobi, an umpire vomiting on the pitch in Mombasa and some cautionary tales about driving in the country’s second city.

Driving in this coastal city means risking your life everytime you get behind the wheel. Buses, taxis and private cars all weave from one side of the road to the other at breakneck speed, attempting to avoid gaping holes in the tarmac, made worse by the recent rain. Courtesy on the road? Forget it. At night, everybody drives with their headlights on full beam, regardless of oncoming traffic, and those unfortunate to break down aren’t likely to get much sympathy. Stranded vehicles on the roadside are regularly stripped of their wing mirrors and hub caps.

Bermuda will be back in Nairobi for the World Cricket League in January, as will one of our young staff members who suddenly feels less thrilled about the trip than he did before reading the article!

	Sharad Ghai: blame it on the rain © Cricinfo

This column has flagged on several occasions the slanted reporting of one or two journalists in Nairobi’s Nation newspaper, and that bias has again surfaced with quotes from Sharad Ghai, the larger than life former board chairman, following the abandonment of the ICC Intercontinental Cup tie against Bermuda.

“We had a golden opportunity to win," Ghai told the newspaper. “When drawing the fixtures Kenya should have considered the weather pattern. India will not agree their fixtures to be drawn for June because of Monsoon rains"

The Nation, so ready to quote the former board chairman, fails to mention that when Ghai was in charge rain was not an issue as almost no matches took place. The final home game under his tenure was an ICC Intercontinental Cup match held in … October …only four weeks earlier than the one he moaned about. And it is worth noting that on that occasion Kenya were forced to field a second XI as all leading players were on strike in a long-running dispute with Ghai’s board.

But, as the Nation’s journalists would have you believe, those were the good old days.

Thomas Odoyo, Kenya’s vice-captain, told the Nation newspaper that the recent three-day team-building exercise at the Malewa River Lodge earlier in the month was most worthwhile.

"I learnt that people can always push themselves a little bit more. That extra bit was nice and very helpful. One gets to know the strengths and weaknesses of team-mates."

He admitted it was tough. "One could easily have walked away. I never knew there was anything like this in the country".

Click here for more

The first floodlit game of cricket in Kenya took place at Mombasa’s Jaffery Sports Club on October 7 where the club has installed new floodlights.

"The club can now be the first at the coast to offer such unique facilities of night cricket and football in addition to the floodlight tennis and volleyball courts,” said a spokesman.

Click here for full details.

Once again, the Nation’s Chris Tsuma has used his newspaper to continue his vendetta against the board of Cricket Kenya. A fortnight ago we highlighted a number of instances where the paper carried slanted reports about the board, and Tsuma, whose reaction to cricticism is well documented, is back.

On Monday, he quoted Roger Harper, Kenya’s coach, who made some fair observations of the state of the domestic game. But Tsuma, who it should be stressed has made no attempt to contact Samir Inamdar, Cricket Kenya’s chairman, for his side of the story, really warmed to his task on Tuesday.

“Despite pre-election pronouncements to the contrary by the Cricket Kenya incumbents, the board has yet to do anything to improve the quality of domestic competition or start a national competition in any forms of the game,” Tsuma wrote.

For the umpteenth time – and it really happens too often for it to be an oversight – Tsuma chooses to ignore the fact that the Kenyan Cricket Association, the predecessors of the current board, left a legacy of debts totaling $500,000, no sponsors, and a sport so sullied that no commercial entities would touch it. Against this backdrop, it is trying to rebuild while existing on an annual grant of $70,000 from the ICC.

Tsuma quotes a Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association official as saying that “clubs are struggling to cope without any form of support from Cricket Kenya”. Given the budgetary difficulties, what is expected?

We can only repeat the question we have asked many times. Why is the Nation’s sports desk following this overtly critical agenda when it was so silent when so much was going wrong when the old KCA were in power. Why did it not rush out to speak to NPCA officials when the association was chucked out of the KCA in 2002? And we all know that Tsuma and his ilk think things are dire, but why have they not once come up with any suggestions for a way ahead? And why do they not speak to board officials? All that is asked for is balance. Don’t hold your breath.

	Steve Tikolo leads Kenya on a lap of honour following the 2003 World Cup semi-final. But were preparations beforehand so much better than this time? © Getty Images

The incessant sniping at the Cricket Kenya board continues in The Nation, Kenya's leading newspaper. For reasons that remain unclear, some of the paper's sports reporters seem to be of the view that the old Kenyan Cricket Association could do little wrong while the new board has taken the game to new lows.

On September 21, Richard Mwangi wrote on the eve of the county's tour of Uganda: "The Kenyans must register impressive wins if they wish to maintain their position as one of the top associate members of ICC ... Uganda has a development programme which has seen the game spread all over the country unlike Kenya where the game only exists in private clubs. This tour is a litmus test for Kenya 's cricket and the future of the game in the country could be determined by it."

Kenya duly won all three ODIs against Uganda by impressive margins, and one would have expected that met the standards set by the paper. Instead, in his article on September 29, Mwangi poured cold water on the clean sweep by saying that the Ugandans failed to offer the expected competition and turned his attack on the board's poor preparations for the World Cup by claiming the "current local league is not helping matters as the standards are at their lowest ebb". The comprehensive victory in the three-day match which followed later in the week was not even mentioned.

A few facts. Under the old KCA, in the 12 months leading up to the 2003 World Cup, Kenya played nine ODIs (they lost every one). In the two years after the 2003 World Cup they played five, and two of those were in the Champions Trophy in 2004 where they had to be invited (they lost them all). The reasons for Kenya 's international isolation are well documented, as are the player strikes, the withdrawal of sponsors etc. There is really no need here to rehearse these all over again.

In the 12 months ahead of the 2007 World Cup, Kenya will have played at least 25 ODIs - these include ODIs in a tri-series against Scotland and Canada in Mombasa in early January 2007 and the World Cricket League Division 1 in late January/early February 2007 when Kenya play host to the other five Associate qualifiers for the World Cup in an intensive 16-match tournament in Nairobi.

In the last seven months alone Kenya has played 13 ODIs winning 4 of them. Eleven of these ODIs have been against Full Member sides. It has also faced a strong Australian Academy side (comprising six players named as part of the 30-strong Australian World Cup Squad) which, after comprehensively beating the Kenyans 3-0 earlier in September, went on to register an even more emphatic 3 - 0 victory against a strong Zimbabwe side. This kind of exposure can only be good for a Kenyan team trying to find its way back to top-flight cricket after having effectively been shunned by the world's cricketing fraternity.

Critics will be quick to point out that back in the good old days the opposition were Australia, West Indies, Pakistan etc and now it is Zimbabwe , Bangladesh and Bermuda. That's true. But, in 2000 (for the Champions Trophy) and in 2002-03 (for the World Cup) Kenya was able to co-host a global event with the ICC's backing and there was a willingness by major countries to help. The current CK board inherited no goodwill, and when even Zimbabwe and Bangladesh struggle to get the big boys to play them, what hope does Kenya have until it rebuilds its reputation?

And when one actually looks at the preparations and the programme, contrary to what Mwangi says, the truth is that never has the Kenyan national cricket team seen such an active build-up before any World Cup that it has participated in. Apart from the matches themselves, and despite the meagre resources available to the new CK board, four Kenyan youngsters who are certainties for their World Cup side, are soon off to the High Performance Centre in Pretoria for a six-week training camp organised by the ICC. They return in time to rejoin their team to take on Bermuda in an Intercontinental Cup tie and the three ODIs which follow.

As for the argument about the local leagues ... well, critics might forget that the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association and Coast Cricket Association operated largely in spite of the KCA and not because of it. The CCA, for example, received almost no central funding, and the KCA even went as far as kicking out the NPCA and refusing to acknowledge it and risibly attempting to establish its own rival set-up. The standards might not be as high as are wanted and there is a lot of catching up to do. Again, it will take time and hard work.

No-one is saying the Nation's journalists should slavishly praise the activities of the board. It is their duty as employees of Kenya 's leading - and most respected - newspaper to be critical and to scrutinise where necessary. But articles which are often negative - and base that negativity on dubious comparisons with the alleged achievements of the old KCA - seem to be based on a predetermined agenda. More to the point, where was that scrutiny a few years ago?

And, perhaps tellingly, enquiries to the board reveal that little attempt has been made to speak to it about the situation or to directly put the journalists' criticism to any of the officials.

A few weeks ago one of the journalists from the paper concerned sent an official complaint to Cricinfo that our articles relating to Kenyan cricket were damaging the company's reputation. A detailed response was given, asking for clarification and justification of that journalist's position. His brief reply was as follows: "I have no time for holier-than-thou Brits like you who imagine you have all the solutions to our problems when you are manifestly very ignorant about the problems facing Kenyan cricket. So just go **** yourself inside out."

It does make you wonder just what solutions he and his like have to offer.

After the series whitewash against Kenya, the Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) has apologised to all stakeholders. During the farewell dinner to reward the top performers and see off the Kenyan team, the UCA apologised for the woeful show the team put up. "It was an awakening for us because we were comprehensively beaten. We must admit that we are not yet there because our game was way below par but we will fight on," said UCA Chairman Ivan Kyayonka.

The Guest of Honour John Nagenda - a former national captain and presidential advisor on media -also apologised for the dismal performance, thanked the Kenyans for showing glimpses of fantastic cricket and promised them a better show in the next series. "I have talked to the top men in UCA and we are going to organize a big stakeholders meeting to find a way forward because it is not a pleasant scene to see the game regress. All the players will also be asked what the problem is," added Nagenda.

Kenya's West Indian coach Roger Harper was however full of praises for UCA for accommodating them and giving his team so valuable match practice ahead of the Intercontinental Cup match against Bermuda and the World Cup.

Uganda's next series will be a tri-series starting on November 9 against Bermuda and hosts Kenya in Nairobi.

Innocent Ndawula

The writer is a journalist with Daily Monitor Newspaper in Kampala, Uganda and seasoned cricketer with Africa Cricket Club in Uganda.

Kenya ended their short tour of Uganda with a resounding win over their hosts in the three-day match at Kampala. Earlier in the week, Kenya had completed an easy 3-0 whitewash in the one-day series.

Kenya made 316 for 9 on the opening day, with Steve Tikolo, Morris Ouma, Tanmay Mishra and Thomas Odoyo all making fifties, and reduced Uganda to 19 for 2 at the close. The home side were bowled out for 156, and Kenya again batted with ease, reaching 186 for 6 by the time they declared shortly before the close, setting the Ugandans a target of 347. They showed little appetite for the fight and were bowled out shortly after lunch of the final day for 95, giving Kenya a thumping 251-run victory. Peter Ongondo (4 for 42) and Thomas Odoyo (3 for 21) were the stars of a last day which lasted less than two hours.

The Ugandan team is stepping up its preparations ahead of their series against Kenya, which starts on September 23 at Lugogo Oval.

The players will now go through two training session a day, giving them more time to work on the batting skills which have been a problem for Uganda against stronger opposition.

Henry Okecho, the coach, told Daily Monitor: "The team is gelling well and everybody is looking good save for batsman Benjamin Musoke who is still nursing a slight injury. We shall name the final squad of 16 next Tuesday."

The tour will consist of three ODIs and a three-day game but Uganda will be without their star allrounders Kenneth Kamyuka and Junior Kwebiiha as well as youngsters Ahmed Yakub, Emmanuel Issanez and Patrick Ochan, who were dropped for various reasons.

Kenya's preparations for next year's World Cup will continue later this month when they tour Uganda for three ODIs and a three-day match.

Click here for more.

Khashif Rashid, a 20-year-old right-hand batsman, became what is believed to be the youngest person to score a double hundred in Kenyan league cricket. Rashid smashed 206 not out off 148 balls for Sir Ali Muslim 'B' against Nairobi Jaffreys at Nairobi Jaffreys Sports Club last weekend. It was the first time a Sir Ali Muslim player had scored a double century in a one-day game in the club's 72-year history.

Meanwhile, back in the England, another Kenyan youngster is making an impression. Seren Waters, son of Kenyan selector David Waters, hit a chanceless 203 not out for Surrey Under-16s against Essex at Billericay. That innings led to him being elevated to the Under-17s and he responded by hammering 139. Waters capped a remarkable sequence by leading Old Cranleighans to victory in the semi-final of the Brewers Cup with 129.

Click here for more.

The four-team Atul Shah Memorial Cup kicked off in Mombasa on Wednesday with Kenya A going down by three wickets to Uganda and Coast Cricket Association beating Tanzania by 52 runs. Live scores throughout the event, which ends with a final on Sunday, can be found by clicking here.