How Moi steadied Kenya's innings

Former President Daniel Arap Moi playing Cricket.

The former President said the ICC event was the biggest sporting event Kenya had hosted since the 4th All Africa Games in 1987 and will enhance Kenya’s image as a sporting country.

He did not score any runs, but for Kenya cricket, it was a milestone.

That is how one Kenyan journalist summarised the presence of President Daniel Arap Moi at Nairobi’s Gymkhana Grounds on October 3 2000.

It was a simple single act. No. Two. Actually, three on that Tuesday morning.

Three simple actions of a man in a suit in the middle of the pitch is what was beamed to the world. That is what the world saw.

But his actions of tossing the coin and facing a bowler twice and not scoring a run from either delivery, were a culmination of years of high-level behind-the-scenes negotiations with an aristocratic sports entity that does not brook criticism and which seeks to uphold cricket as a gentleman’s game which should be handled only by purists.

On this day, President Moi was officially launching the International cricket Council (ICC) Knock-out Trophy tournament.

It was dubbed the mini-World Cup because all the big hitters of the cricketing world were here. Or there, in Nairobi, playing on a pitch, which, according to Cricinfo’s Geoffrey Dean, was “green almost to the point of being lush, it was also as smooth as a billiard table.”

Kenya had always played (international) cricket and had even gone to the world cup as a part of the East Africa team comprising Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. By then, Moi was the vice-president.

Four years later, when West Indies lifted the Cricket World Cup trophy for the second time, Moi was the president, having been in office for a year.

Kenya, either on its own, or as part of the East Africa cricket team, did not qualify for the 1979’s premier cricketing event, but appeared at the International Cricket Council Trophy tournament, which was almost equivalent to the event that Moi was launching in Nairobi on October 3, 2000.

Some may argue that he never played a vital role in the promotion of cricket, but that would be an outright lie. The fact that Kenya on its own, and not as an appendage of East Africa, started appearing in Cricket World Cup during Moi’s reign speaks volumes about his role in helping Kenyan cricket develop. And the fact that Kenya, a minion in cricketing world was picked to host the ICC Knock-out Trophy should eliminate any doubts about his role.

“This is the biggest cricket tournament ever held in Africa and we are privileged to be the hosts,” Moi said as he launched the event, and added that it was also an “honour that Africa hosted this important tournament.”

He said that the ICC event was the biggest sporting event Kenya had hosted since the 4th All Africa Games in 1987 and will further enhance Kenya’s image as a sporting country.

It is not rocket science to understand how or why the ICC skipped Test-playing South Africa and Zimbabwe, the former with all its sporting infrastructure that had even hosted the Rugby World Cup and African Cup of Nations, and chose Kenya for this mini-World Cup.

Four years before the Gymkhana event, Kenya had made its debut in the Cricket World Cup co-hosted by Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka and caused the biggest upset by beating two-time champions, West Indies in Pune.

In 1999 too, Kenya qualified for the Cricket World Cup and failed to win a match. But Kenya’s best performance came a year after Moi left office, in 2003, when the team reached the semis.

Some may argue that the performance in 2003 was due to years of hard work, and discipline of both the secretariat and the playing unit, because of a strict parental authority at State House, but there will be no dissenting voice, because, that is what it was.

So, as Moi leaves the crease at 95, having steadied Kenya’s innings and helped it out of a sticky wicket, we should not forget that life is like one day cricket: It does not offer one a chance at second innings so we have to do our best while at the crease.