Cricket: Time now to look back to the future

By COLIN MACBETH

A cue might be taken from Uganda’s highly successful women’s teams, both at full international and Under-19s level, who have consistently employed such a policy

As the Kenya national cricket squad returned home last Sunday (February 2) from the International Cricket Coulcil (ICC) World Cup qualifiers in New Zealand with their tails – not for the first time – tucked firmly between their legs, it might just be of help to fast backward 20 years to the great teams of the 1990s to restore some joy and pride to the side.

In the debacle, Kenya alost the ODI status.

For 20 years ago this month, Kenya hosted the ICC Trophy, in those days a pathway to the World Cup, came in runners-up to the UAE and won their place at the World Cup finals in India in 1996, where they famously defeated the mighty West Indies despite losing to India, Australia and Sri Lanka.

Oh, what days!

And all this had begun several years earlier with a comprehensive victory over Zimbabwe at Nairobi Gymkhana in 1993 and then on to the 1994 run of success before the team fell, and only just, to Pakistan ‘B’ (UAE) at the final hurdle in front of a 3,000-plus crowd at Ruaraka.

As relevant, however, was the dynamic youth development programme then in operation, the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) secretary David ‘Maji’ Waters securing in 1995 the services, through Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), of a cricket development officer, Jim Bowen, who, in May 1998’s issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly, was described as ‘A good man in Africa’.

Services to sport

This same tag would apply to Waters, who has since been made MBE by the British for his services to sport and education.

Bowen, who has written a dryly humorous book about his experiences, was succeeded by Paul Phillips, who really put mini-cricket on the map, both at boys’ and girls’ levels. And then, apart from Kenya’s somehow freaky appearance in the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, what? Precious little, one might suggest.

Lamentable performances

The introduction of the East African Premier League (EAPL) T20 competition and the East Africa Cup (50/50) in 2011 made a bid to up the game nationally in both Kenya and Uganda, but it is open to question how well this has succeeded, given the countries’ lamentable performances in both the recent T20 and 50/50 world qualifiers.

The regional contest may now have to be rebalanced and taken back to its 2010 roots – to promote the long game and ‘proper’ cricket, with sufficient stimulus at grassroots level; so that perhaps all the teams, Kenyan and Ugandan (Tanzanian and Rwandan too), are obliged to field a set number of ‘development’ players in their sides.

A cue might be taken from Uganda’s highly successful women’s teams, both at full international and Under-19s level, who have consistently employed such a policy, opening up the game to a vibrant competitive spirit.

As for now, the best one can say is: ‘Alas, poor Kenya, we knew her well’, and hope that some of the tips suggested in this article are acted upon and sufficient stimulus created to allow the country to regain its ODI status, and with it its reputation.

— The writer is a well-known journalist, cricket commentator and qualified umpire