Ramifications, Reflections and Recoupment

Contrary to popular belief, I have not been refusing to post due to sulking over the results of the Bangladesh series. Well, I was sulking, but that has not been the reason for my silence. I had to take a few days away to go to a mate's wedding, and was unable to get access to the net while I was there. In a way, it was not such a bad thing as it meant that the vitriol that I had boiling away has been replaced with a more balanced view on where Kenyan cricket goes from here. A brief recap over the last month or so shows mixed results from the A team against Uganda and Denmark being followed by the National side's loss to Canada to put us out of contention for the Intercontinental Cup. We then bounced back with two big ODI wins against them before returning home where we were soundly beaten by Bangladesh 3-0.

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When looked at like that, there seems little to be cheerful about and plenty to worry about. However, I am not a great believer in despondency, so this is what I see we can take from it all, and what we need to do to get things back on track.

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Our young players have on the whole stepped up well and in many cases have out performed their senior team mates. Tanmay Mishra continues to show promise with the bat, as does Collins Obuya. Thomas Odoyo seems to be getting back to his best, indeed bettering his personal best with the bat in that great innings in the second ODI against Bangladesh. Both himself and Peter Ongondo performed well with the new ball, and had the batsmen given the bowlers more to bowl at, they may have done even better. Nehemiah Odhiambo seems to have answered the question as to who should come in at first change and Hiren Varaiya proved he had what it takes in the spin department. Why he was not included against Bangladesh, only the selectors know. On the whole, the bowling has been good and all the bowlers used with success (other than Tikolo) have plenty of years in the bank.

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Batting remains our weak link, especially the opener's spots. None of the players tried so far this year have instilled much confidence, though Maurice Ouma at least showed signs of improvement in the last series. There is still a huge mountain to climb here however and the administration need to take steps to rectify the situation.

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So far, despite great work in getting matches for the national team and in arranging TV coverage and sponsors, few gains have been made in terms of the domestic scene. The NPCA have a slightly expanded competition and Rift Valley certainly seem to be moving in the right direction. At the coast however, it seems like player numbers have dropped, and this is a real worry. Kisumu, also a potential centre for expansion also seems to be very quiet, though there is word out that a 7-a-side competition will be held there in September.

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Make no mistake, Kenya needs all the international competition it can get and Cricket Kenya have so far out-performed the other Associate bodies in arranging matches. However, if we continue to lose them, it will not do us any good in the quest for sponsors, and more importantly in the growth of the game. Now that we have a fairly full schedule over the next 6 months, priority must shift to developing the domestic cricket structure.

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Last year, Uganda had some 25 000 children involved in playing cricket. If we aim to stay above them and the other upcoming Associates, we need to at the very least not only match this, but exceed it. Kenya also need to do more work to take cricket outside its traditional bases in the country. There is a strong following among the communities that originated in India and Pakistan, and to a lesser extent the European population, but comparitively little interest yet amongst the African population, certainly when compared to the overall population of the country. Long term, it is my firm belief that Kenya has the potential in terms of racial mixture to pruduce one of the best teams in the World. One only has to look at some of the best players for us in recent years to see that we have several communities capable of providing hugely talented players. The difficulty is to convince the majority of the country that cricket is a sport not only worth following, but worth playing as well. This must start at school level and it must start now.

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Not only should the game be introduced to more school children, but it must be aggressively marketed to the general population. There is a vacuum at the moment for Kenyan sports fans generated by the continued demise of soccer and the poor way it is run. Cricket is at a stage where it could really benefit from this. My suggestion would be for Cricket Kenya to use 'indigenous' players such as Tikolo, Odhiambo and Odoyo to do radio and TV adverts promoting the game as not only a sport, but career as well. Kenyans love a spectacle and will often gather to watch anything that provides one. A travelling promotional movie/info show could provide this at a fairly low cost, and could go around the country educating people about the game, then get them involved in actually playing after the session. This is just one of many ways to promote the game, but the bottom line is that whatever is done must be done actively and aggressively. Growing cricket's populatity will not happen by itself.

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Linked to this is the need for a national league in both forms of the game. Only when our top players get regular practice at the longer version of the game will standards really improve enough to worry Test teams. Only when players from all over Kenya are making it through to the national team will we even begin to realise our potential. Both are a long way off, but the first steps must be taken now with setting up the structure to achieve these dreams.

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Cricket Kenya have been doing some great work in getting cricket back up on its feet in Kenya, but now they must get it walking in the right direction. Hopefully, we will hear news of things happening to this end soon.