Cricket: Endless wrangles ran the shows this season

Jackie Janmohamed(in blue dress)chairman cricket Kenya present sports kit to Under 19 crickets players,Sachin Bluidia captian(second left)Maxwell Ager,Aman Gandhi,Rene and their coach Jimmy Kamande(Left)at Simba union on 22nd December 2017.[Edward Kiplimo,Standard]

Endless wrangles take centre stage

It’s the year youngsters made it to the global stage despite infighting

It has been a year marked with self-interest, resignations and courtroom dramas at Cricket Kenya.

That 2018 has been a bad year in the history of Kenyan cricket is an understatement if performances are anything to go by. 

With more happening off the crease prompted by management and leadership crisis, the sport suffered most with poor performances a clear indicator that all was not well. From courtroom drama to the national team blowing hot and cold in their performances and nothing for women cricketers, it was clear that the sport had been thrown to the dogs.

Wrangles took centre stage halting the development of the game and exposure of players. However, there were a few good moments like when the Under-19 national team competed at the World Cup for the first time in January after 16 years in the cold. While the upcoming cricketers did not excel in New Zealand losing all their preliminary matches, it was a good learning platform. 

The junior cricketers were not to blame for their not-good-performance, which resulted from Cricket Kenya’s (CK) inability to prepare them for competition on the big stage. But their participation at the age group event in the past produced stars like former India Captain Virat Kohli and juniors were exposed. Sachin Bhudia, who captained the Under-19 team, has since graduated to the senior team and, in November, he staged a good show in the World Cricket League Division Three championship held in Oman while among Kenya’s top performers on his debut.

Kenya also had a good moment in July when under the tutelage of the Kenya’s cricket legend Maurice Odumbe won the ICC 2020 T20 World Cup Eastern Sub Region Africa Qualifiers. This was a great moment for a country that is struggling to reclaim its lost glory.

Hell had broken loose in February setting the stage for endless drama witnessed throughout 2018 following Kenya’s relegation to International Cricket Council (ICC) Division Three. Men’s national team failure to turn up for the job in ICC Division Two championships held in Namibia led to the demotion after they lost all their matches to finish sixth in a six-nation competition. 

This shocked cricket to the core making the CK Ruaraka offices inhabitable with the then CK Chair Jackie Janmohammed, team coach Thomas Odoyo and Captain Rakep Patel resigning in a huff. This was the beginning of chaos that brought Kenya, a once revered cricketing nation, to its knees. ICC which once held Kenya in high esteem started analyzing the situation. 

Cabinet Secretary of Sports Rashid Echesa was sworn in and among his first points of call was the Cricket house. This ignited more drama as accusations emerge. Former international players had assembled and wrote a memorandum demanding for the dissolution of Cricket Kenya citing financial misappropriation, lack of quorum to run administrative operations and failure to comply with the Sports Act 2013 on matters relating to elections. The former players led by the likes of Edward Odumbe, David Obuya and Tariq Iqbal landed on soft spot after the CS dissolved CK in mid-March and ordered for elections within 90 days while an Interim Committee acted as caretakers.

Between April and October, factions regrouped and order was thrown out of the window as local cricket was staring at an abyss. One group allied to CK led by Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association Chairman Tom Tikolo sued the Cabinet Secretary for interference while the other stuck to their guns. Sobriety was lost as legal circuses were witnessed back and forth shuffling between the Sports Disputes Tribunal and the High Court.

Stray Lions batsman Abraham Vadada during the Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) Twenty20 finals at Peponi School on Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Players got sucked right into the stalemate and threatened to quit the national team as the sport was getting sullied. However, these happenings also occasioned another nightmare as the federation accounts were frozen thus crippling the operations of the sport. Officials and other employees went for months without pay.

Former CK boss and prominent lawyer Janmohammed stepped in to salvage a dire situation by offering a token to players who were to represent Kenya in the ICC Division 3 qualifiers in Oman in November as there were no funds. Team selection also grabbed headlines for a while as some key players had been sidelined but the biggest talking point was the coaching department.

Initially Odumbe was picked for cover until end of the qualifiers but was mysteriously dropped following alleged disagreements with the management over his attitude. His assistant Lameck Onyango was to oversee preparations. Sadly, Kenya did not impress in Oman.

Locally, only the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) held 50 overs and T20 championships which kept players across different divisions busy.