OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE

Kenya in disarray ahead of Division 3

by Bertus de Jong • Last updated on

Representational Image: Kenyan Cricket without a proper board since April. © Getty

Cricket Kenya's ongoing administrative trouble, a regrettably recurring theme of this column, has reared its head again ahead of the crucial World Cricket League Division 3, to be held in Oman next month.

The penultimate tournament in the World Cricket League before the competition is replaced with the ICC's new 50-over international league structure, Division 3 is crucial to Kenya's hopes of reclaiming the ODI status that it lost in 2014, and to its remote prospects of qualifying for the 2023 World Cup in India, which would be their first appearance at a global ICC event since the 2011 World Cup.

In order to claim a place in the coming "Cricket World Cup League 2" along with (at least de-facto) ODI status, Kenya first need to finish in the top two at Division 3 - a six-team tournament that also features Oman, the United States, Singapore, Uganda and Denmark. The top two of these six win promotion to Division 2, which is to be held in Namibia early next year and from which the top four teams will join Scotland, the UAE and Nepal in League 2, the highest division of Associates cricket under the new structure.

Success or failure will mean the difference between playing 36 ODIs across two and a half years in League 2 or 15 List A fixtures over a similar period in the new CWC Challenge League, as well as potentially determining access to ICC High Performance programmes and funding. Yet reports emerging from Kenya suggest that rather than concentrating on preparation for the crucial tour to Oman, Kenyan Cricket has sunk deeper into petty infighting and organisational chaos, with long-standing political and administrative disputes affecting team management, selection and training.

Discontent amongst senior players, who allege they are still owed salaries for at least the past two months, had been intensifying for some time, with a number of players boycotting the recent preparation matches against a touring MCC side, and finally came to a head earlier this week when the team selections for WCLD3 were announced. Several players reportedly threatened to boycott the tournament entirely, refusing to hand over their passports in protest at the dropping of a number of established players in favour of under-19 players who had turned out against the MCC.

Also axed was skipper Shem Ngoche, who was retained in the squad but replaced as captain by the veteran Collins Obuya, younger brother of David Obuya - the secretary of the interim committee currently running CK. Initial reports also suggested that the elder Obuya himself intended to replace Maurice Odumbe as head coach for the tour. Obuya appears to have at least partially backed down following a closed meeting with players on Thursday, with Lucas Oluoch and Elijah Otieno reinstated to the team and Collins Obuya apparently withdrawing from the squad, though David Obuya later claimed his younger brother would remain captain and news of his withdrawal had only been circulated in order to "confuse social media".

If confusion was the intended effect then the "strategy" can doubtless be accounted a success, and indeed the make-up of the Kenya touring party may only become clear when (and if) they arrive in Muscat. What is abundantly clear however is that Cricket Kenya remains in shambles. Once the leading Associate on the field, earning "permanent" ODI status in 2004 and widely tipped as the next full member of the ICC in the early 2000s, Kenya has been on an almost uninterrupted downward trajectory since then, in large part driven by off-field administrative ineptitude.

The country has been without a properly-constituted cricket board since April this year, after a disastrous showing at the previous WCL Division 2 prompted a string of resignations at the board including Chair Jackie Janmohammad, and fresh elections were nixed as sports minister Rashid Echesa dissolved the body at the prompting of a "stakeholder's group" of former players and administrators (which included Obuya), amidst allegations of incompetence and misappropriation of funds.

This was not the first time Kenya's board has been axed by the government - Ochillo Ayacko, Echesa's predecessor as Cabinet Secretary for Sport, took similar action against the then Kenya Cricket Association in 2004. The KCA was eventually replaced by Cricket Kenya the following year, but the prospect of a functioning board replacing Cricket Kenya any time soon currently look remote.

Following the dissolution of CK, an interim committee, under the chairmanship of former VC Harpal Singh Sehmi, was formed to oversee the administration of the game and the drafting of a new constitution, intended as a temporary measure ahead of fresh elections to be held within three months. Those elections were unforthcoming however, and the committee itself now seems to have fallen to infighting. The majority of said committee (of which Obuya is secretary) has now also resigned, most notably treasurer Ravi Kaul, who quit back in August to leave Sehmi as the sole elected member of the body.

The continued legitimacy of the interim committee some three months after the supposed deadline for fresh elections has been challenged by former members, with Tom Tikolo, Rajesh Patel and Sukhban Singh claiming that the committee was effectively disbanded, and taking legal action to prevent its access to Cricket Kenya funds ahead of the teams recent tour to South Africa for the Africa T20 Cup. Word has it that Cricket South Africa had to bail out the Kenyan team on short notice, offering a loan to cover their costs for participation in the competition.

Notably absent from that tour was then head coach Odumbe, who was replaced by assistant coach Lameck Onyango on grounds that Odumbe was still recovering from an eye operation, a claim belied by the fact that Odumbe was apparently fit enough to play club cricket at the time. Odumbe had previously spoken out in support of players striking over unpaid salaries ahead of the tour.

With the treasurer's role still unfilled and legal battles ongoing, it is not clear who (if anyone) currently controls Cricket Kenya's accounts, and such problems are likely to be chronic. Whilst much of the cost for the tour to Oman for Division 3 will be born by the ICC, Committee Secretary Obuya's apparent attempt to insert himself into the touring party seems to have generated particular resentment, with the Committee accused in the Kenyan press as being more interested in procuring such junkets than working toward the reconstitution of the country's governing body.

Regardless of where the fault lies, there seems little hope of swift resolution. Only today members of the Interim Committee publicly questioned the validity of Sunday's Special General Meeting, even as others questioned the standing of what is left of the Interim Committee, of which half the initial members are now reportedly involved in legal dispute with the remainder.

Now more than six months on from the formal dissolution of the board, progress has apparently amounted to less than nothing. Whilst the financial strains and petty politics are doubtless already affecting Kenya competitively, even a successful outing in Oman against the odds will not fix the troubles at home, which will inevitably jeopardise anything achieved on the field.

The ICC has so far shown Kenya the sort of indulgence usually reserved for Full Members, but given the degree of political intervention and ongoing administrative incoherence, Kenya's membership standing must surely be in question if the situation is not swiftly resolved.

Others have been suspended for less.

© Cricbuzz

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