By Gilbert Wandera

Harambee Stars home-based players will resume training next week in preparation for their up-coming World Cup qualifier against Nigeria at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

The team had not trained this week as head coach Adel Amrouche has been away attending a CAF seminar in Egypt.

Assistant coach James Nandwa said when the team resumes training next week they will only break once to allow players join their clubs for league matches.

The team will not play Ghana on June 1 as earlier planned after the Black Stars cancelled the match.

Ghana Football Association (GFA) Protocol Officer Alex Asante wrote to the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) on Tuesday informing them of the impossibility of honouring the friendly.

The letter gave various reasons for the cancellation of the match, among them the inability to assemble their top stars on time and a change in the dates for their World Cup qualifier against Sudan, which forced them to change plans.

“We regret to inform you that the Ghana Football Association cannot honour the match.

“The reasons for the cancellation are that the date for our qualifying match with Sudan has been shifted from the 9th to the 7th of June 2013 thereby forcing us to adopt new plans.”

“Secondly, there have been several changes in the arrival dates of our players who are based in Europe. Most of them will be arriving in Accra between the 28th and the 30th of May thus making it impossible to gather them for the match.

“The Ghana Football Association apologizes for this inconvenience and wishes that the match will be rescheduled for a future date,” said the letter from the Ghanaian association.

Reacting to the cancellation, FKF Executive Committee member, Hussein Terry, said they have lined-up either Burundi or Rwanda to play Stars on June 1.

“We regret that the match against Ghana cannot go on but are glad that both Burundi and Rwanda willing to play Kenya. We are working on the details and will announce the plans in due course,” he said.

The cancellation will certainly disappoint Stars fans who would have wanted a top-rated friendly against the Kenyan players.

After holding Nigeria 1-1 in the first leg last month, confidence level rose among Kenyans in the team.