Sunday, September 16, 2007

Reader's reply to 'Doom?'

This reply comes from Reader Andrew Maina and is reproduced unedited:

"Unless Cricket Kenya makes real and concrete steps to expand their young player base beyond the handful of international schools that already have cricketing facilities then they shouldn't be surprised that they are having so much trouble finding talented youngsters to fill the voids left by such players like Ravi Shah and Morris Odumbe and that the few young players are struggling so much to cope. Methinks they should borrow a leaf from sports like Athletics Kenya, who have built a global powerhouse of an athletics team of the talents they uncover on a regular basis in national level sports competitions,and more recently the Kenya Rugby Football Union, in starting a public schools cricket competition. They could for example begin by selecting a core of say 5 schools in Nairobi, Rift Valley and Coast provinces to set up nets on their own school compound and regular access to a nearby cricket pitch for use when they need to play practice or real matches against each other. These would then act an extra source of new blood for clubs and if they are good enough who knows."

Well said Andrew.