Wednesday 15 October 2008

Kenyan Cricket fails to click

Boy ,did our boys have a bad run over the weekend. With the ICC Trophy just a throw away (had they qualified for the Final, they would be playing with Namibia), we seemed to have other priorities. For sometime now, the Kenyan game seems to have lost its flow and we are slowly headed back down the list of Non-Test status, given that 5 years ago, we had a strong case for playing regular games with Test playing nations.

Maybe the governing body for cricket had a point there.
With the local leagues playing non-competitive games and the in-fighting of Kenyan cricket officials, our boys have become the whipping boys losing to the Pakistan Academy not so long ago.
Why do we allow our sportsmen to bloom only to push them down the drain as fast as we let them rise ? The other day I met Maurice Odumbe and almost stopped in my tracks because the man has become a pale shadow of what he was. The suspension seems to have drained the best from him. Much can be said too of other local players who have resorted to reminiscing days gone by not too long ago.
We also seem to have run out of new ideas to get the best of players. Disappointment is lurking out heavily around the corner and with qualifiers for the World Cup not too far away, we better get our act together or we are reduced to 'have beens' !
This article here should explain some of the cause and ways out for Kenyan cricket...read on !

4 comments:

Andruid said...

Trouble is from where can I see it is the new kids are not putting up there hands to be counted. You see most of the time it is veterans like Steve Tikolo, Thomas Odoyo, and Peter Ongondo carrying the team on their backs whilst the newer generation are shown up. Consider the one game they defeated Zimbabwe earlier in the week. There for once Tikolo's century was backed up by 71 from 20 yr Alex Obanda and Some excellent bowling from Nehemiah Odhiambo (24yo) who got the wickets of Taibu and Masakadza, Elijah Otieno (20yo) and Hiren Varaiya (24yo) who aded another 5 wickets. If these youngsters were to learn to produce performances like this game in game out then Kenyan cricket would be in a much healthier state on the field than it is now.

Anonymous said...

Andr,
I do concur with you. There seems to be a vacuum of new talent filling in for the older guys like Tikolo. Now that maybe because of the local league not really offering much exposure to the lads and also the teams never get internationals with Test playing nations.
At times we might read mischief by the ICC but then Kenyans have never given it their all in some of the invitationals.
Plus we may want to invest a bit more in the game, whatever happened to the Indian TV rights...

Andruid said...

They are dependant apparently on Kenya hosting at least One ODI series per year. But who wants to tour Kenya anyway?

Anonymous said...

I guess with the Nairobi grounds proving to be not so dry, we don't have any interested parties in town. KCA had better get their act together or cricket's folklore soon.