Juniors give hope for future

The Kenya under 15 boys team have beaten Uganda by 26 runs at the Aga Khan ground in Nairobi yesterday to win the regional under 15's trophy. This is great news for the future as last year's trophy was won by the Ugandans, and there have been mutterings that Uganda may be the upcoming force in African cricket.

Kenya lost the toss and were put in to bat by the visitors Though no one really took advantage of the conditions, Kenya still managed to post a total of 196. Kenya's highest run getters were captain Madan Sundaran with 38 and Shem Obado with 36. Uganda's run chase never really got off the ground as thier top order was dismissed cheaply bringing the score to 5 for 55. A fightback by the middle order and tail made the match interesting, but Kenya retained the upper hand and the match closed when the last batsman holed out to Michael Shikoli at long on off the skipper's bowling.

Kenya U15s 196 beat Uganda U15s 169 by 23 runs.

In the other match of the tournament, Kenya uner 15's "A" team narrowly lost low scoring game against Tanzania. Kenya "A" batted first, but were never able to take control, and were removed for only 75. Tanzania also struggled with the conditions, but never the less were able to bring up the winning runs with the loss of only 6 wickets.

Tanzania U15s 76 -6 beat Kenya U15s "A" 75 all out by 4 wickets.

With Zimbabwean cricket on the wane, it is important that more than just talk is seen from Samir Inamdar's board in regards to developing the game in Kenya so we can fill the void that will be left. We failed to qualify for the Under 19 World Cup, losing out to Uganda, so while a small victory on the stage of World Cricket, winning this trophy by beating the country that kept us out, is never the less an important step in the right direction.
The administrators now have to build on this to take the game forward at a national level. While Kenya won yesterdays match, we have fallen behind our neighbours in terms of junior development. This has to be rectified. The good news is that Uganda's strong junior infastructure was in part put in place by our own Tom Tikolo, so we now have both the know how and experience to put in place a similar setup in Kenya. We shall watch with interest to see if this happens, but in the meanwhile, congratulations to Madan Sundaran and the rest of the Kenya under 15s.