NEW CHANGE BECKONS: Men's cricket team blends youth and experience for T20 tourney

Collins Obuya plays a sweep, Canada v Kenya, ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, 11th place play-off, Sharjah

Kenya men’s cricket team leaves for South Africa today morning for the inaugural Africa T20 tournament.

The tournament acts as a curtain-raiser before the domestic T20 series that bowls off after the final on October 4.

Sixteen teams have confirmed participation in the tournament including three African teams; Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The Kenyan squad is a blend of new and experienced players, which represents a wave of change in the national men’s team.

Rushabh Patel’s trade with the Cricket Kenya Elite/U-23 programme seems to have paid off after he got his first call up to the national side.

Patel last represented Kenya in the U-19 Global World Cup qualifiers in Ireland in 2011. Abraham Vadada’s hard hitting in the local league also earned him his debut to the national team as a wicket-keeper batsman.

Dhiren Gondaria makes his comeback to the national side after he injured his arm, which kept him out of action for close to a year.

Having lost the two T20 matches against Saudi Adabia in the recent series, coach Steve Tikolo says it was time to rebuild and move on.

“We have senior players, who have been in the team for a while, but are not producing the desired results. I’m happy that we have youngsters like Dhiren Gondaria, Rushabh Patel and Karan Kaul, who have shown so much promise and in them, the team has a bright future.”

“We will take our positives from the losses since we were trying new combinations. The tournament in South Africa isn’t easy and knowing that we have to top our group to proceed, our bowlers need to adjust their lengths and our batmen minimise their dots,” Tikolo said.

Meanwhile, an on-field brawl between two Bermuda club cricketers during the country’s Champion of Champions final on September 12 has resulted in one of them being banned for life and the other slapped with a lengthy suspension by the Bermuda Cricket Board.

At the end of an over during the game, Cleveland County Cricket Club’s wicket-keeper Jason Anderson smacked the Willow Cuts Cricket Club’s batsman George O’Brien on the head to spark off a massive fight.

Anderson was given “a life ban from all cricket, while O’Brien was suspended for a length of time.