According to the Standard Newspaper, The start of the Coast Cricket Association 20-20 cricket, second leg, has been delayed due unresolved cases of indiscipline. Papu Singh, the Associations fixtures secretary, yesterday said there were cases of indiscipline that needed to be addressed before the league could start.
Mombasa Cricket Club allegedly walked out half way through a match citing biased umpiring, and CCA say that the issue of umpires need to be addressed before the league could get under way. Singh said that part of the problem was there were not enough umpires, and urged the umpiring association to look for ways to train more officials. He also reassured teams that the second leg would get under way at the end of February.
Hopefully this situation will be sorted out soon, as it is important for Kenyan cricket that the game outside of Nairobi improves in terms of competitiveness. Mombasa is the second cricketing hub, and has the potential to produce some quality players for the national team. It is just as much up to the CCA to improve the situation for umpires as it is for the umpires association to train more officials. Conditions for umpires need to be good enough to encourage more people to learn the craft, and they need to be protected to make sure that the better ones remain. On the other side of the coin, biased umpiring is unacceptable, and should be dealt with severely. It will do the game a lot of damage if it is allowed to go on, and this is a time when Kenyan cricket, does not need things holding it back. Lets hope a solution can be found quickly, so that the players can get back into the middle, and get on with playing cricket.
In a separate report, the Standard put the value of the just concluded sponsorship deal between Cricket Kenya and IHSAN Sports at US $45 000, the equivalent to 3.2 million Kenya Shillings. That will certainly help in terms of supplying equipment to the development program, but there is still a need for more sponsors to get on board.
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