Normal programming has resumed and the misinformation and misplaced and false anger about Africa Nation’s Championships (CHAN) are done with, meaning Kenyans can now rest easy that the country is ready to move to the next round of blame game; whichever and whenever that will be.
When it comes to sports that is how Kenya operates. Talk is very cheap and sports administrators at different levels of the economy and governance hate to cloud their minds with proactive ideas and love to work backwards, talking about problems they caused and blaming others for them.
On Friday, the national cricket team lost to the Netherlands in a World Cricket League Championship tie, one of the several matches that are meant to catapult them to the next level of qualifiers from where they can hope to make it to the World Cup.
Why and how did Kenya get to such a labyrinthine qualification process yet it was already on the same crease with the big boys of world cricket? Your guess is as good as mine: Lip service.
On Thursday, the national football team, Harambee Stars, went down to Iraq in a friendly in Basra and were playing another friendly yesterday against Thailand. The cricket team was also pitted against Netherlands in a second match in South Africa and by the time of going to press, there was hope they would win much more than just the toss from which they elected to field.
While Kenya’s teams are on a losing streak in different parts of the world, other African football teams including Uganda are playing in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Their younger male players are in the Under-17 World Cup in India and Kenya has withdrawn from the Under-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers due to the schooling calendar since players are scouted from schools.
That is an apt reason - but the senior men’s team will miss out on next year’s Chan because of bungling by Kenya’s sports administrators, which led to the hosting rights being taken away and Kenya had an automatic berth as hosts.
When it comes to cricket, all the nations that know talk is expensive are playing in different countries, and one of them is Bangladesh (which is in South Africa) a side that Kenya used to beat at will but nowadays shares creases with the big boys while Kenya wallows at the lowest end of the heap.
Football and cricket are not the only Kenyan teams that are or have been getting their jerseys in a twist or are on a sticky wicket but they are just the latest sides that epitomise how low sports in Kenya have sunk and how poorly sports and by extension, sportspersons are considered.
Of course much more than just talk should be done for any successes to be realised in all fields, but judging from the way things are, it is safe to conclude that the best is over and the worst is on the way.
The writer is an editor with The Standard, Weekend Editions.
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