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.