Family’s stellar contribution popularised cricket in Kenya

Maurice Odumbe

Odumbe’s fall was particularly harrowing because of his family’s stellar contribution to Kenyan cricket.

After Kenya was awarded independence in 1963, the sport, till then the preserve of the white and Asian populations, slowly began to be Africanised. In 1976, Kenneth Odhiambo Odumbe became the first black African to play for Kenya. Four of his brothers would later represent the national team too.

For black Africans, cricket was not just a sport but an escape route. The Odumbe family was raised on an estate for government employees in Nairobi, and lived next to the Sir Ali Muslim Club. Out of curiosity, they started to watch matches there and to play themselves. The Odumbes used a plank of wood as a bat, and maize cob as a ball.

“We took a dustbin, the dustbin would be the wicket and then we just played cricket in between the streets of the estates.” When they practised on the boundary edge during games at the club, their talent was noticed. The Odumbe brothers got the chance to train and play for the club. The Sir Ali Muslim Club paid for Maurice’s school fees from the age of 14. “At school I used to play rugby and football, I used to run for my school, but it seems like I was drawn more into cricket, probably because of the money I started earning early.”

The story of the Tikolo family, who contributed two captains to Kenya - Steve and Tom - is strikingly similar. They also grew up near the Sir Ali Muslim Club, where they watched matches with the Odumbes. The only significant difference was that a benefactor from the Swamibapa Sports Club spotted the Tikolos, and signed them to play there. Together these two families inspired Kenya’s rise. They provided three brothers each to the side that was the runner-up in the 1994 ICC Trophy, qualifying for Kenya’s first World Cup in 1996. Even in their heyday, Kenya’s playing strength was always over-dependent on a select few families.

 

WHITE BALLS

For all except Steve Tikolo, who played for South African first-class side Border in the winter of 1995-96, training before the World Cup was limited to weekends and in the evening after a full day’s work. When Kenya requested white balls to train with before the tournament, the board could only afford to give them red balls painted white. During the World Cup, the players were paid only a US$10 allowance. All of this made the triumph over West Indies, who collapsed to 93 all out, so memorable. It was especially so for the captain, Odumbe.

Two years earlier, he had asked Brian Lara for his autograph after a Warwickshire game in Swansea, where Odumbe was playing for a club. Lara had declined. After taking 3 for 15 against West Indies in the said match, and winning the Man-of-the-Match award, Odumbe now went up to Lara in the changing room after the game and handed him his autograph.

“I asked for your autograph and you wouldn’t give it. Now I am saying you can have mine.”

Plenty of other international stars would soon become familiar with Odumbe and the Kenyan team. They became a semi-regular presence in triangular and quadrangular series, and were widely expected to become the 11th Test nation. “The country was right behind us - that was the talk of the town.”

Yet the success of 2003 proved not to be a springboard but a curtain call on Kenya’s great era.

Damningly, there are more nets in some public schools in England than in every state school in Kenya combined. As Aasif Karim did recently, Odumbe (pictured) calls Kenyan cricket “dead and buried”.

“We missed out, we missed the boat,” Odumbe reflects. “Cricket remained a closed shop, just for a few elitists. If you don’t belong to a club, forget about playing cricket.” The depth of talent became so shallow that when Odumbe returned to the Nairobi club scene after his five-year ban in 2009, at the age of 40, he was still one of the best players around. Without his chequered past, he might have earned a recall.

“People who understand what cricket is are ashamed that cricket has reached this level,” he says. But Odumbe’s own actions, interpreted as evidence that greed was not the preserve of Kenyan cricket administrators alone, made it easier for the cricketing world to forget about Kenya. -ESPNCricinfo.com