Kenya may have lost their warm-up game to the West Indies (match report here), but all things considered, this was a decent performance by our team. Thomas Odoyo struck early on and Rajesh Bhudia showed he can take wickets at this level too, even if he was a tad on the expensive side. Hiren Varaiya proves he can take wickets against higher ranked Test opposition as well as the Associates - he could well turn into one of the surprise packages of the tournament (well surprising for those who have not seen him bowl anyway...).
On the batting front, some concern still at the top of the order, but good to see both Shah and the skipper coming back into form. A shame no one really turned their start into a big score - Samuels was the difference between the two teams there. Good show from the middle order with an unbeaten half century from Collins Obuya (again proving he can do it against top opposition).
All in all, a respectable showing and certainly one that should give hope for the tournament ahead. A few glitches still to be sorted out, but on the whole the team look to get better each time they play. One more warm up against the Dutch to go, then the must win game against Canada to start the World Cup. Exciting times!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Friday, March 02, 2007
BBC looking for Kenyan cricket fans
My apologies for taking so long to post this, but if anyone out there has a webcam and is a supporter of Kenyan cricket, there is an opportunity to show your support on the BBC:
The Cricket World Cup will soon be starting - and the BBC are looking for cricket fans with to appear live on BBC World TV during the tournament.
The Cricket World Cup will soon be starting - and the BBC are looking for cricket fans with to appear live on BBC World TV during the tournament.
To take part, you'll need to have a passionate opinion about cricket and the impact of the World Cup in your country.
You'll also need to have a PC, a webcam and a reliable broadband connection.
We want to hear your views on the events in the
My Cricket World Cup will be broadcast live on BBC World TV during March and April.
Each show will feature panels of ordinary people from all around the globe talking live on TV using webcams. We'll be discussing a wide range of issues - not just the cricket itself, but the impact of the Cricket World Cup around the world.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Kanbis, Holding and is the goat back?
Due to my commitments at Cricket Europe and trying to get everything in my paid job back on track since returning from the WCL, things have been a bit hectic - hence the lack of regular posts. Will try to do better.
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This does not mean there has been a lack of things to comment on in Kenyan cricket:
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Last week, Kanbis showed that once again they are going to be the team to beat in the NPCA tournament. They earlier secured their longterm future by completing a deal with Eastleigh Secondary School whereby they will revamp the school's abandoned soccer pitch and thereby ensure that nothing but cricket gets played on the cricket oval, as well as working towards setting up a cricket academy within the school. Last weekend both A and B teams registered big wins in their first games of the 20-20 competition - with 2 teams performing so well, there has to be a case for them to perhaps enter 3rd and 4th string sides into the lower divisions as well. Where they lead, others will be forced to follow if they hope to break the Kanbis dominance. One thing however is that the Vortex Goat seems to reside just outside their ground eating their communications as well as Mama Mweni's lingerie from the washing line. Anyone with any contacts at Kanbis please get them to return my emails. A full roundup of last week's NPCA matches and RVCA's Woolmatt Cup game can be found here on CricketEurope - Kenya.
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All credit to Tanmay Mishra for his second placing in the Most Promising category of the Sports Personality of the year. Hopefully the whole team will be able to back up their 2003 effort and win this award again next year!
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Not only is the Goat disrupting transmissions from Nairobi, but seems to have firmly established a second fiefdom in Mombasa. Maybe it is the upcoming World Cross Country Champs that attract it with the horde of journalist that can feed it, or maybe it is the added salt in the Sukuma, but once again it is getting in the way of cricket news from the CCA. For all that comes out of there in terms of results, one would think cricket in the area is dead, gone, no more. Someone please prove otherwise. It does not look good that the home region of the Cricket Kenya Chairman is so quiet. Time for Mbuzi Choma Coast-Style?
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As for Michael Holding's comments? REMEMBER PUNE 1996! Maybe we should send the goat over to Jamaica to give him a butt up the butt - or is it a case of Mbuzi kabisa siwezi kumbuka!
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Apologies to all fluent Kiswahili speakers for mangling their beautiful language.
.
This does not mean there has been a lack of things to comment on in Kenyan cricket:
.
Last week, Kanbis showed that once again they are going to be the team to beat in the NPCA tournament. They earlier secured their longterm future by completing a deal with Eastleigh Secondary School whereby they will revamp the school's abandoned soccer pitch and thereby ensure that nothing but cricket gets played on the cricket oval, as well as working towards setting up a cricket academy within the school. Last weekend both A and B teams registered big wins in their first games of the 20-20 competition - with 2 teams performing so well, there has to be a case for them to perhaps enter 3rd and 4th string sides into the lower divisions as well. Where they lead, others will be forced to follow if they hope to break the Kanbis dominance. One thing however is that the Vortex Goat seems to reside just outside their ground eating their communications as well as Mama Mweni's lingerie from the washing line. Anyone with any contacts at Kanbis please get them to return my emails. A full roundup of last week's NPCA matches and RVCA's Woolmatt Cup game can be found here on CricketEurope - Kenya.
.
All credit to Tanmay Mishra for his second placing in the Most Promising category of the Sports Personality of the year. Hopefully the whole team will be able to back up their 2003 effort and win this award again next year!
.
Not only is the Goat disrupting transmissions from Nairobi, but seems to have firmly established a second fiefdom in Mombasa. Maybe it is the upcoming World Cross Country Champs that attract it with the horde of journalist that can feed it, or maybe it is the added salt in the Sukuma, but once again it is getting in the way of cricket news from the CCA. For all that comes out of there in terms of results, one would think cricket in the area is dead, gone, no more. Someone please prove otherwise. It does not look good that the home region of the Cricket Kenya Chairman is so quiet. Time for Mbuzi Choma Coast-Style?
.
As for Michael Holding's comments? REMEMBER PUNE 1996! Maybe we should send the goat over to Jamaica to give him a butt up the butt - or is it a case of Mbuzi kabisa siwezi kumbuka!
.
Apologies to all fluent Kiswahili speakers for mangling their beautiful language.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
I disagree Mr Captain
Steve Tikolo's assertion in an interview with the Standard that the Kenya team players were justified is holding a one day strike on Wednesday over the match fees from the canceled match against Canada could not be further off the mark. I have immense respect for Tikolo and what he has achieved in cricket both for himself and his country, but it is high time that Kenya's leading players realised that strikes should be an absolute last resort. Holding to ransom a body that has just confirmed it will pay you $5000 is poor enough form, but the potential damage the players did to themselves in the long run is far worse. All over a payment for a game they did not actually play. True, they did the hard work in training for it etc, but it should be noted that they were still paid their daily allowance for that day, it was only the actual match fee that was withheld.
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Tikolo's view was that they had done the hard work in training for the match, so should be paid anyway sounds in a way fair enough, but if Cricket Kenya got no income from the match, where does the money come from? Already some of the administrators have dug into their own pockets to keep the team afloat and in training while a sponsor is found. Striking does not help this search. All it does is give potential investors a reason not to support the game. Not a good long term strategy for the players at all, especially when they are dependednt on this to remain full time cricketers. I have already said my piece on this here on cricketEurope yesterday, and Martin Williamson also makes the point on cricinfo. Unfortunatley, the Nation continues to lose credibility in terms of cricket coverage with a bizarre article by Sulubu Tuva who starts well, but then gets carried away insinuating it was players and not the Ghai led KCA that lead to the 'strike culture'. Considering that the players would not have had to take this action if millions of shillings had not disappeared and sponsors been scared off due to financial irregularities, this is a perplexing point of view. Note also that if the KCA had not blocked private companies from investing in schools cricket during the wrangles, there would still be an active program running now and the number of cricketers (and hence attractiveness to sponsors) would be about doubled.
the good thing out of this is that it was handled well by Cricket Kenya and that everyone is now keen to put it behind them. So long as the players do not continue this sort of nonsense in the future.
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Samir Inamdar has made it clear that Cricket Kenya will use some of the sponsorship money to give contracts to leading players and he reiterates this and the administration's plans for the games development in an excellent interview by Oscar Pilipili in the Standard. hopefully this is the article sponsors will pay most attention to, because as Pilipili's heading so rightly puts it, 'Local cricket is on the right track'.
.
Tikolo's view was that they had done the hard work in training for the match, so should be paid anyway sounds in a way fair enough, but if Cricket Kenya got no income from the match, where does the money come from? Already some of the administrators have dug into their own pockets to keep the team afloat and in training while a sponsor is found. Striking does not help this search. All it does is give potential investors a reason not to support the game. Not a good long term strategy for the players at all, especially when they are dependednt on this to remain full time cricketers. I have already said my piece on this here on cricketEurope yesterday, and Martin Williamson also makes the point on cricinfo. Unfortunatley, the Nation continues to lose credibility in terms of cricket coverage with a bizarre article by Sulubu Tuva who starts well, but then gets carried away insinuating it was players and not the Ghai led KCA that lead to the 'strike culture'. Considering that the players would not have had to take this action if millions of shillings had not disappeared and sponsors been scared off due to financial irregularities, this is a perplexing point of view. Note also that if the KCA had not blocked private companies from investing in schools cricket during the wrangles, there would still be an active program running now and the number of cricketers (and hence attractiveness to sponsors) would be about doubled.
the good thing out of this is that it was handled well by Cricket Kenya and that everyone is now keen to put it behind them. So long as the players do not continue this sort of nonsense in the future.
.
Samir Inamdar has made it clear that Cricket Kenya will use some of the sponsorship money to give contracts to leading players and he reiterates this and the administration's plans for the games development in an excellent interview by Oscar Pilipili in the Standard. hopefully this is the article sponsors will pay most attention to, because as Pilipili's heading so rightly puts it, 'Local cricket is on the right track'.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Associate Champions
Well, it has certainly bee a grueling week, and I am talking for the media, let alone the players. Up at 6:30 every morning in order to get to grounds on time in order to do live scoring, trying to keep emotions in check and pretending to be neutral. Failing miserably on that last one. Meetings. More meetings. Interviews with players, officials and anyone who would talk to me basically. Articles. Match reviews, you name it. Exhausting, but fun none the less, and seemingly productive. Everyone in Kenya seems to be keen on pulling in the same direction, and that in itself bodes well for Kenyan cricket.
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Despite all the running around and goings on by everyone else, this week has really been about the players and their quest to prove themselves the 'Best of the Rest'. It should not need me to tell you that the Kenya team acquitted themselves admirably. True, since my last post, they did slip up against Scotland, but then more than made up for it with the convincing win against Canada and then the final against Scotland today.
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Once again Kenyan players recorded personal bests in all three games, and this surely must be something of a record. I will do a proper article once I have done my research more thoroughly, but at least one Kenyan player has made a PB in every match bar one of their last 12 or so games. This is a fantastic reflection on the coach, Roger Harper, and on the team's commitment. Lets hope the trend continues into the World Cup and beyond.
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Plenty has been written about this tournament, how much it means to cricket in Kenya and the future. Bottom line is that it sets Cricket Kenya up in a position where they can develop the game and it proves to the World that we are indeed the top Associate. Huge credit to the team for their effort, it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys - true ambassadors of the game and our country. Congratulations to each and every one, and keep it up against the Test teams in the World Cup.
.
Despite all the running around and goings on by everyone else, this week has really been about the players and their quest to prove themselves the 'Best of the Rest'. It should not need me to tell you that the Kenya team acquitted themselves admirably. True, since my last post, they did slip up against Scotland, but then more than made up for it with the convincing win against Canada and then the final against Scotland today.
.
Once again Kenyan players recorded personal bests in all three games, and this surely must be something of a record. I will do a proper article once I have done my research more thoroughly, but at least one Kenyan player has made a PB in every match bar one of their last 12 or so games. This is a fantastic reflection on the coach, Roger Harper, and on the team's commitment. Lets hope the trend continues into the World Cup and beyond.
.
Plenty has been written about this tournament, how much it means to cricket in Kenya and the future. Bottom line is that it sets Cricket Kenya up in a position where they can develop the game and it proves to the World that we are indeed the top Associate. Huge credit to the team for their effort, it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys - true ambassadors of the game and our country. Congratulations to each and every one, and keep it up against the Test teams in the World Cup.
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