LET BATTING BEGIN: Kenya set for top cricket outing during Europe tour

Kenyans can prepare for top cricket activity as the men’s national team engages in intense competition in Europe. The team was due to leave yesterday to participate in first of the premier round of the World Cricket League (2015 - 2017) and later, the T20 World Cup Global Qualifiers.

Kenya is taking part in the World Cricket League after Ireland and Afghanistan were excluded from the competition and given a direct ticket to the 2019 World Cup through the rankings system.

As such, Kenya and Nepal earned the opportunity to take part in the World Cricket League, which features two One Day fixtures per series and an opportunity to play against the lowest ranked side of the 12 teams at the end of the competition for a chance at promotion.

Consequently, Kenya take on the United Arab Emirates in a two-match ODI series on June 25 and 27 at the Ageas Bowl in the first leg of the series.

They then embark on the T20 World Cup Qualifiers to be hosted by Ireland and Scotland with warm-up matches on July 6 and 7 against PNG and USA with the first match pitting them against Canada three days later. The top two teams from each group automatically qualify for the premier T20 event while the second, third and fourth teams will play cross-over matches to determine the next four winners.

The Kenyan delegation to both tournaments features a fairly settled team under the tutelage of veteran coach Steve Tikolo, aside from debutante Karan Kaul. The youthful side in the tougher one of the two pools (featuring Afghanistan, Netherlands, UAE, Scotland, Canada and Oman) will be looking to qualify for the World event for the first time ever under this criteria.

The team are currently riding high, after crushing Uganda in a preparation series barely a week ago. Only six teams from the 14 participants get to qualify for the premier event, the T20 World Cup 2016 in India.