Players Overseas still in good touch

With national team players stealing the limelight in the first week of the NPCA League, is should also be noted that a few Kenyan players went well this week in England.

Seren Waters (Pictured taking a catch v Ireland in this year's Intercontinental Cup - courtesy Cricket Europe) is again back in the runs as he made 89 for Surrey 2nd XI.


Ragheb Aga has made two consecutive 50's for Eastbourne and backed one of those 50's up with a 3 wicket haul.

Also turning in a good all round performance was Moses Otieno who scored a personal season's best for his side (Combined Forces) with 46 against Sandhurst and followed it up with 3 for 22 as Sandhurst won by 4 wickets chasing 177.

Ex Kenyan International Hitesh Modi took 2-36 against Fleet CC for club side Chesham then followed it up by top scoring with 52 off 57 in their Thames Valley League Division 1 match which ended in a tie.

Odhiambo leads way as Swamibapa win

Early reports coming in from the first round of the NPCA League:

SUPER DIV:
Swamibapa starts on a high note beating Kanbis B by 173 runs: Nehemiah Odhiambo hitting a deserved 101 with 8 sixes and 5 fours with a supportive 60 from Kenya Captain Maurice Ouma and Shem Obando’s 25 helping Swamibapa to 254. Bowling honours for Kanbis were shared by Captain Gopal Vekaria 3/59 and Rohit Vekaria 2/53.

Odhiambo (pictured during the recent Intercontinental cup match v Ireland - photo courtesy Cricket Europe) then went on to take 6 wickets for 26 as his brother, James Ngoche, picked up 3 for 10 runs as Kanbis B faltered to 81 all out. Mansukh Jessani (16) and Jagdish Khetani (16) were the best of the Kanbis batsmen.
Report – Joseph Angara (Swamibapa), Subhash Modi (Umpire)

Simba Union won against Sir Ali by 7 wickets. Sir Ali won the toss and elected to bat scoring 127, a total that Simba chased down in just 19 overs.
Report – Abdulqadir Najmi (Simba Union)

Straylions A played its first match with Sri Cutchi Leva Patel Samaj in the Super League at Peponi School. SCLPS won the toss and elected to field first. David Obuya and Steve Tikolo opened the batting and they made a huge opening partnership of 266 in 36 overs. David Obuya got out for 77 and Steve Tikolo 170. Stray Lions' other main contributor was Peter Kituku who scored 29. Stray Lions ended with 346/6 in 50 overs. SCLPS started the batting after lunch and were all out for 142 in 23 overs. Darshit Shah took 5 Wickets, Hiren Varaiya took 3 wickets, Josphet Ababu and Andrew Mboya took one each.
Report - Thota Sreenivas (Stray Lions)

Kanbis A 252 (Rajesh Varsani 59, Arvind Halai 37, Ramesh Mepani 32, Vikram ? 2-44, Paul Anjere 2-50, Alfred Luseno 2-52)
beat Telca 206 (Thomas Odoyo 43, Newton Muthee 33, Prasanth ? 33, Rakep Patel 3-13, Rikesh Hirani 3-36, Ramesh Mepani 2-24)
by 46 runs
scorecard - Kanti Rabadia (Kanbis)


DIV 1:
Swamibapa B 250-8 defeated Kongonis Development XI 244-9 by 6 runs.
Report - Dominic Wesonga (Kongonis)

DIV II:
Straylions B played their first match with Golden XI in their Division B match at Highridge Primary School. Batting first, Golden XI were all out for 77. Ramesh Shamji took 5 wickets, Nadeem took 4 wickets and Girish Nair took one wicket. In Stray Lion's successful 77 run chase, Anand Ranganathan top scored with 45 runs.
Report - Thota Sreenivas (Stray Lions)

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Report from Girls Mini-tournamnent

This report of the Secondary Girls School mini-tournament comes courtesy of Dun Okinyo:

Defending champions Moi Girls Nairobi Girls successfully retained the Cricket Kenya Girls Secondary Schools championships after edging out former champions Kenya High School in a thrilling final on Saturday at Ngara Sports Club.

Batting first, Moi Girls scored 74 runs all out - a total that looked easy target for Kenya High before two quick wickets from Melvin Atieno changed the proceeding of the game for High to lose by three runs. At the time Atieno struck Kenya High looked poised to reach the target as the openers had put on 24 for the first wicket in four overs.

When Atieno bowled out Kenya High openers for five and ten runs respectively in the third over with the scores on 24, this made all the difference in the match as Kenya High never recovered as wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. However Whitney Musungi top scored with a slow 18 from 34 balls mainly because she lacked partners to help her out in pushing for the target.

Earlier Rachael Mwikandi had top scored with 24 for Moi Girls despite finding it hard to play Cecilia Ouko who was elected best bowler after taking three wickets. Mwikandi and Mercy Cherop put on a fourth wicket stand of 34 runs. Cherop scored 12 runs. Joan Nyaboke, Vanessa Ogega and Roselyn Maina bagged two wickets each. Moi won the last title when it was last held in 2007 by defeating Huruma Girls. Kenya High last won the event in 2006 and had hoped to win it for the second time but Moi had other plans

Moi's captain said the confidence and proper learning of the game is what made the difference in the match they had been ruled out even before the start. "Nobody gave us a chance to win. I don’t know why but we are happy we have defended our title and we look forward to continue working hard and get it going," she said. Her Kenya High counterpart said her team's failure to win the match was due to the inability to use the scoring opportunities that came their way. “We had many loose balls that we would have scored many runs but we wasted them. But that is a by gone and so we need to shift our attention to the coming event where we promise to do well,” Ogega said.
In the third and forth place play offs St. Teresa’s scored 66 runs with two balls to spare to edge out Kenya High second team which had set a target of 64 for the Eastleigh based school. Joan Kering who was elected the best player of the event scored a quick fire 23 for Kenya High but that was overshadowed by unbeaten 25 from Mildred Sambu. Sambu who won the best batter award had earlier bagged two wickets in Kenya High’s innings.

After the matches, Cricket Kenya boss Tom Tikolo, who watched all the matches, expressed confidence with the way the players had carried themselves on the pitch in the few months since they started playing the game in their schools.
He hoped that most of the players to play in the East and Central Africa under19 and 15 championships later in the year will come from those schools.

With Girls cricket taking shape in other provinces the game is likely to gain in popularity amongst them which will create a lot more competition. The presence of the national team players who umpired the match was a big motivation and it’s only a matter of time before the country has more than five girls teams taking part in their own league. Already a select team is taking part in the NPCA league where over 30 players are fighting for the limited space in the side.

Moi Girls retain Girls Title

Moi Girls School have retained the secondary school girls mini-tournament held at Ngara Sports Club on Saturday. Moi girls defeated Kenya High in a close fought match to take the title. Also impressive were St Terasa's.

While it is great to see events like this organised by Cricket Kenya, once again there is so much more that can be done to promote them. A Press release a day before the event is hardly enough notice to expect anyone to be able to sopport it and there needs to be an improvement in official release of results and scores from such events. These are the future representatives of our country we are talking about. No matter whether girls or boys, out youth must be given every chance and every support there is.

Congratulations to Moi Girls and all the others that took part. Good luck to all the others out there trying to make it!

(information sourced through facebook - apologies to Dun Okinyo for the unauthorised use...)

Odumbe wants back...

This in itself is not really news. Kenya's former captain has made no secret of the fact that he want to return to cricket on the completion of his ban next month. This article in the Nation certainly makes it sound as though he would be the answer to all Kenya's prayers. Unfortunately, I believe it to be incomplete in its assessment. Even if he has been training hard, a return to top class cricket for anyone after 5 years out would be incredibly difficult. At 40, several years after most cricketers have retired, it should be well nigh impossible. Steve Tikolo, a better batsman, is not yet that age and despite looking fitter than he has for years is beginning to find age is taking its toll. To expect 40 year old hand eye co-ordination to be able to compete at top level is optimistic at best and insulting to Kenya's current team at worst.

Kenya cricket did not lose its lustre because it lost Odumbe. He was a great player and his absence on the pitch in the early years no doubt did not help Kenya's cause, but this very absence was a symptom of the malaise, not the cause of it. Guilty or not, and there are Test cricketers that escaped with less having seemingly done more, the fact remains that Odumbe should be well past his best by now.

The Associate game has also changed a lot since he last played for Kenya. Yes, we do now lose to the likes of Ireland and yes that rankles, but it is as much a part of those nations improving as Kenya moving backwards. To suggest he would walk back into the side as early as August is nonsense. Even if he had time to prove himself by then, which he won't - there are simply not enough matches to do so, there is the question of whether his influence would harm or heal. This is a delicate time as a side under new leadership tries to rebuild. Despite the scores in Ireland, there was indication that a corner had been turned. Returning yet another ex-captain and highly opinionated player to the fold is unlikely to help matters.

With the above being said, there is also weight to much of what Odumbe said in this interview. Kenya's administrators must do more to spread the game. If there truly are youngsters playing in Kisumu, for God's sake help them with coaching and facilities - this should be a hot-bed of cricket talent. Restore the NPCA to former strength, spread the game properly in all provinces and ensure that Kenya continues to get regular games against provincial sides from overseas. His fears that Uganda will catch us up and overtake are well founded and he is not alone in these. Voicing these concerns Odumbe sounds like a man with Kenya's cricket interests at heart (or possibly a man with an axe to grind?). When he talks about waltzing back into the national side by August, he sounds like a man with his own interests first. Next month he will get the first opportunity to prove which he is. Only time will tell if he is up to it and if it is really Odumbe the leader or Odumbe the egotist we will see back. For everybody's sake, not least his own, I hope it is the former.