Kenya's Walking Wounded

A report on cricinfo today states that Martin Suji has undergone knee surgery in an effort to get himself fit in time for next year's World Cup. Once an integral part of Kenya's bowling lineup, Suji has had little action this year due to torn ligaments. He missed the Zimbabwe tour, and was then briefly reinstated for the Bangladesh trip, by all indications too early. Hopefully he will make a speedy recovery and we wish him all the best.

Hitesh Modi is also still on the injury list as his finger, broken during Kenya's Intercontinental Cup match against Holland, is still not healed. Surgery would again be an option here, but hopefully it will not be neccessary. Again, we wish Hitesh all the best, and look forward seeing him back in action for his club side Chesham.

Scotland Have Best of Opening Day Against Namibia

The first match in Group A of the Intercontinental Cup got underway yesterday in Mannofield, Aberdeen - Scotlands newest One Day venue. Namibia won the toss and elected to bat but lost Botha early with the score on 19. The visitors continued to lose regular wickets, and only a 70 run stand between Sarel Burger and Gerrie Snyman looked like taking them to a decent score. Scotland however brought Ross Lyons on to bowl his left arm spin, and he very rapidly took the game away from the Africans. Removing Snyman with his second ball, caught Smith, he then trapped Burger LBW the following over to have Namibia 6-156. They then only managed another 12 runs for the last 4 wickets, with Lyons finishing with the fantastic figures of 12.4 overs, 8 Maidens, 10 Runs and 4 Wickets. Quite an effort for the youngster in his first ever First Class match, and fully justifying his elevation from the U19s.

Scotland's reply didn't start well with Lockhart treading on his stumps in the first over, before they had a run on the board. Unfortunately for Namibia, this brought the in-form Ryan Watson to the crease. He wasted little time settling in, and was soon skimming along at a run a ball. Scotland lost their second opener when Stanger was caught for 12 with the score on 47, but that did not deter Watson who went on to record his fifty with Watts playing a support role. Namibia were offered a glimmer of hope in the last over when Watts ran himself out, but they desperately need to remove the danger man Watson to stay in the match. The Scorecard currently has him on 62 from either 69 (if you believe Cricinfo), or 64 (if you believe Cricket Europe). They do both agree that the score is 3-95, some 73 runs behind with 7 first innings wickets in hand. Heavy rain is forecast for today, so hopefully they will be able to get in a decent day's cricket.

Kenya's Swimmers In Cricket Strip

Browsing the Kenyan newspapers today for something on cricket, I thought I had struck lucky when I opened the Kenya Times Sports Page. There, staring me in the face were 4 young athletes wearing the shirts Kenya's cricketers wore for the 2003 World Cup. I know because I have one in the cupboard. Mine says Tikolo on the back, and the logo sewn onto the front is different, but the shirts are the same. Excellent I thought, these are four faces I don't recognise, maybe they are some of our new up-and-coming youngsters. An article started brewing in the back of my mind. Closer inspection proved me correct in to a certain extent. They are four of Kenya's new wave of athletes, but are unfortunately swimmers not cricketers. Oh well, hopefully we will get some cricket news soon for me to write about.

It does beg the question though: Are they wearing these shirts because the Kenya Swimming Federation could not afford their own design, so used some shirts the manufacturers had left over from the cricket World Cup, or did they choose them out of support for our cricket heroes of 2003. I rather suspect it is the former, but will make myself believe it is the latter until I hear otherwise. I wonder what names are written on the back...

Cricket Clubs In Kenya

Having searched in vain for somewhere on the net where I can find contact details for cricket playing clubs in Kenya, I have decided it is high time there is a list of clubs, and a directory of sorts. As and when I get some information on various clubs, I will update the list.

If anyone out there has any information on any of the following, or knows of a club/team I have missed that is an ACTIVE cricket playing club, please let me know so I can keep the directory up to date.

The information I am looking for is:

• Official Club Name.
• Physical/street address.
• Postal Address.
• email Address.
• Phone Number.
• Fax Number.
• Website if applicable

CLUBS:

MOMBASA:

Aga Khan Sports Centre
Burhani Sports Club
Coast Development - c/o CCA?
Coast Gymkhana
Jaffery Sports Club
Mombasa Sports Club
Shree Cutchi Leva Youth League
Sir Guru Singh Saba Cricket Club

NAIROBI:

Aga Khan Sports Centre
Golden XI Cricket Club
Kanbis sports Club
Kongonis Cricket Club
Krishna Cricket Club
Nairobi Gymkhana
Nairobi Institute
Nairobi Jafferys Sports Club
Nairobi Nookers Cricket Club
Ngara Sports Club
Parklands Sports Club
Premier Club
Quitbis sports Club
Ruaraka Sports Club
Shree Cutchi Leva Youth League
Simba Union Sports Club
Sir Ali Muslim Club
Stray Lions Cricket Club
Swamibapa Sports Club

RIFT VALLEY - PLAY IN NAKURU:

Akshar Cricket Club
Diamond Club
Eldoret Sports Club?
Kericho Cricket Club?
Naivasha Cricket Club?
V.O.C

Kenya To Play New Zealand and South Africa 2008

Yesterday saw the release of the ICC's Future Tours Program which puts in place the tour schedule between now and April 2009. According to the program, Kenya are scheduled to play a tri-series in South Africa against the hosts and Scotland in May of 2008, and a tri series in Scotland a month later when New Zealand visit after their tour of England. While this is good news in that it locks in matches against two more of the Test sides, it does leave Kenya as the only one of the top 6 Associates that does not have a match against a Test nation in 2007 (barring the World Cup of course).

So far Cricket Kenya have aquitted themselves well in terms of getting matches against teams such as Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but it is worrying that more assistance is not forthcoming from the ICC. There are plenty of tours that include 5 or 7 match series that could easily be played as tri-series instead featuring the two Test teams and an Associate. Cricket Kenya will need to do some serious lobbying to make sure we are not left out in the cold for another year. Much will obviously depend on Kenya's performance on the pitch over the next 12 months. If we can show we are still competetive, and have a good World Cup, we may well be invited to be part of future series. Again this is something Cricket Kenya need to work towards. The more cricket our players get against other teams - be it full ODI's or matches against other Associates, the better. Domestically too, things need to happen. For all players to get a fair chance at selection, and for the domestic standard to improve, a National competition of some sort needs to be set up soon. It is difficult to tell at the moment how close this is to happening, there having been no word so far from either the National or Provincial bodies on the matter.

Build up Begins to Scotland and Namibia Clash

Both Scotland and Namibia have named their squads for the upcoming Intercontinental Cup tie this Thursday. Scotland have brought in a couple of the youngsters who have performed well for them in the U19 World Cup, and the A team. Namibia have also had to draft in some youngsters to replace injured players, so both teams will be below full strength, but will have some good new talent on show to make up for it. A good preview including interviews with the coaches can be found here on Cricket Europe.

This will be an interesting match to watch from Kenya's point of view. Despite the drawn match with Holland, where they took the first inning's points, our group is still wide open, and we could yet qualify for the final. If we do, we will face the winner of Group A, and the favourites for this are either Scotland or Ireland.

The outcome of this match will depend on the ability of the Scots to make the most of home team advantage, and how well the Namibians can adapt to a very different climate to what they are used to. It will be a good indication for the other teams in the tournament where Scotland and Namibia stand, and what they can expect when they play them. We shall watch the game unfold with interest. There is a poll and thread in the Kenya Cricket Forum in Caught Behind for those that want to have their say on the match.

Squads (from):

SCOTLAND

Craig Wright (cpt), Kasim Farid, Gordon Goudie, Paul Hoffmann, Douglas Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Colin Smith (wk), Ian Stanger, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts.

NAMIBIA

Deon Kotze (cpt), Dawid Botha, Kola Burger, Sarel Burger, Gareth Cloete, Hugo Ludik (wkr), Henno Prinsloo, Nicolaas Scholtz, Gerrie Snyman, Stefan Swanepoel, Louis van der Westhuizen, Ian van Zyl, Tobie Verwey.

UMPIRES:

Niels Bagh & Charlie McElwee; match referee: David Jukes

Akshar League Standings after 7 games

TEAM............Played......Won......Lost......Bat......Bowl......Win......Total
ELDORET.......2..............2...........0............2..........8...........24.........34
DIAMOND......3..............1...........2.............3.........10..........12..........25
KERICHO.......2...............1...........1.............5..........7............12.........24
AKSHAR.B.....2...............1...........1.............4..........5............12.........21
VOC................3...............1............2............1..........8...........12.........21
AKSHAR.A.....1...............1............0............4..........4...........12.........20
NAIVASHA....1...............0............1............0..........3............0...........3

Raju the Swinger Destroys VOC

Some superb bowling by Raju over the weekend coupled with difficult conditions saw Diamond Team record their first victory of the tournament in emphatic fashion. On a very damp pitch, the game at one stage looked like being abandoned, but the desire to play cricket triumphed and VOC elected to bat after winning the toss. They will be regretting that decision in a major way, as Raju put on a swing bowling master class that will give the VOC batsmen nightmares for quite a while. Swinging the ball both ways, he had the batsmen in all sorts of bother, and they were skittled out for a mere 60 runs. Indravadan picked up two wickets as well, but it was Raju's 7-for that put the match out of VOC's grasp almost as soon as it began. In reply, Diamond needed only 8 overs to knock off the runs and seal a comprehensive victory. Kakul was the only Diamond batsman to return to the pavilion, making 22 before being trapped LBW by Ketan, but Indravadan continued his work of the first innings to finish on 23 not out, with Minesh joining him to knock off the remaining runs. Thanks as always to Shailesh for the report and scorecard (maybe he should be giving a mater class of his own in communications to the NPCA and CCA…).

Scorecard:

VOC Inings:

Naren....................Ct..Amit.................Raju................00
Batuk....................Ct..Amit..................Indravadan....12
Khilan...................Bowled....................Raju................00
Kirti......................Ct..Pranav...............Raju................13
Ketan....................Ct..Amit..................Raju.................06
Minesh.................Bowled.....................Indravadan.....06
Shanti..................Ct..Minesh...............Raju.................00
Jayesh..................Not out.............................................03
Jayendra..............Ct..Minesh..............Raju.................00
Harshil.................Ct & Bowled............Raju.................01
Yash.....................Run Out (Indravadan)....................01
Extras............................................................................18
Total all out...................................................................60

.
Diamond Innings:
Kakul....................LBW.......................Ketan................22
Indravadan..........Not out.............................................23
Minesh.................Not out.............................................07
Extras.............................................................................09
Total for 1 wicket in 8 overs..........................................61

VOC points: Nil

Diamond Points: Bowling - 4, Win - 12, Total - 16.

Profiles Updated

With little news filtering through from Kenya at the moment, I took the time available to update both the fixtures list, and the player profiles pages. While the Uganda and Bangladesh tours are not yet confirmed, they will fill a gap in the calendar. I will include the dates as soon as there is official confirmation.

The player profiles had not been updated since the Zimbabwe tour, so all of the players who took part have had the summary refreshed, and the players added to the squad since have been included.

Cricket Ground At Kasarani?

This recieved a fleeting comment in today's editorial in the Nation entitled 'Stadia in a deplorable state'. Basically, the Chinese government are going to revamp the stadium, and the article notes that there is enough room in the complex to house a cricket ground. It is doubtful that it will happen, but it would be good to see. It would certainly help raise the profile of the game, and would give Kenya another venue in which to host Internationals. Kenya is certainly in need of a ground with decent lighting, and this could be the perfect opportunity. With two major cricket events to be held in Kenya over the next four years, and the definite possibility of more in the future, this would certainly be a worthwhile investment. Technical assistance from the ICC could probably even be arranged in the current climate of global expansion. Maybe Cricket Kenya should lobby the government before the plans are finalised.

Fairburn Record Second Victory

A fine innings of 80 off 85 from Fairburn skipper James Clegg led his side to a 19 run away win over Cookridge in the Leeds West Riding League; their second victory in three games. James is from Kenyan stock, so great to see him finding form with the bat after narrowly missing out on a fifty last week. A full report on the match can be found here on the opponents website.

Hitesh Modi's English Club, Chesham, were also in action over the weekend in a warmup game against Chenies & Latimer. I can't find any news on the result, or if he is back playing, but will keep working on it.

In Denmark, Amit Bhudia's team, Herning, did not play this weekend. Their next match is a Danish Cup game away vs. Aalborg on the 12th before backing up the following day vs. Svanholm II in their first League match. Herning lost their earlier Cup match against Husum by 7 wickets. I have yet to hear back from the club about Amit, but again will keep trying.