Player of the Year Update

Firstly a huge thanks to all the panelists who have given up their time to vote and to all the fans who have done likewise. This award could not exist in the form it does today without your generous input - Asanteni and keep it coming.

A quick reminder how it works: There are 2 panels and a public poll. After each match each panelist votes on who they think were the best performers for the match giving 3 points to the best, 2 to the next best and 1 to the 3rd best. The total points are added up for the panel and the highest score is awarded an Aggeragate of 3 for that panel for the match, the next highest 2 and so on. The 2 aggeragates for the panels are then added to a similarly calculated aggeragate from the poll to give an Aggeragate Total. From this, a final points allocation for the match is awarded in the same 3,2,1 manner. At the end of the year, the player with the most match points is awarded the Player of the Year Trophy.

While voting is still open for some of the World Cup qualifiers and the home series against the Netherlands, all votes have been tallied up to the end of the tri series with Scotland and Uganda and the running tally is as follows:

Player	IC v Scotland	T20 v Ug1	T20 v Scot 1	T20 v Ug2	T20 v Scot 2	Total
Steve Tikolo		3	2		1	6
David Obuya			3		2	5
Collins Obuya	1			3		4
Hiren Varaiya	2	2				4
Maurice Ouma	3					3
Nehemiah Odhiambo					3	3
Alex Obanda		1		1		2
Nelson Odhiambo				2		2
Jimmy Kamande			1			1
Elijah Otieno						0
Shem Obado						0
Tony Suji						0

We hope this is both a transparent and fair way to decide our best player over the year. Remeber - the more of you who vote on the fan poll, the more representative the final Aggeragate will be. Polls can be found on the menu to the left.

A great win

Far be it for me to gloat, but for once supporting Kenya really paid off as the team justified the faith of the growing number of fans by producing a great all round team performance to beat the Netherlands in a game that so easily could have gone the other way. There are far better match write ups on cricinfo and Cricketeurope than I have time for hear, so I will keep this really short and just say: well played the team and well done the coach. This is the sort of performance we know you can produce - please keep it and the constant personal improvements coming!

Inconsistency and the rumoured retirement of our greatest ever player

If Kenya's recent run of form can show us anything, it has been both the best and worst of what the team is capable of. Like an Associate version of Pakistan, one day the team shows itself capable of blasting any opposition off the park, the next it appears to fall apart as it loses to a team it should on paper defeat easily or who they brushed aside a mere couple of days before. This inconsistency is frustrating for fans and must be doubly so for the team and coach who should be able to see the potential if the players were to fire on a regular basis.

There have been some fantastic individual efforts from a range of players - Rakep Patel, Alex Obanda, Steve Tikolo and David Obuya have all produced some fine innings with the bat. Nehemiah Odhiambo, Elijah Otieno and Hiren Varaiya likewise with the ball and the newest members of the squad, Shem Obado and Nelson Odhiambo are also showing that they may have what it takes to be key players for Kenya in the long term.

There is no doubt the potential is there, coach Eldine Baptiste just needs to find a way to get it to be realised on a regular basis.

On a separate note, let us all hope that the reported spat between Steve Tikolo and either the rest of the team or Cricket Kenya is overblown rumour. He has served Kenya too well and too long to leave the team this way. whatever happened in UAE, it is up to both sides to come to a better arrangement that this. Tikolo deserves a proper send off if he really is to retire and Cricket Kenya need his services for another year yet.

Finally, the due date for the applicatrions for CEO of Cricket Kenya has now come and passed. Hopefully there are some quality applications in there and Cricket Kenya will choose someone who will rekindle the glory that was once Kenyan cricket. Good luck to all the applicants.