Sports Monthly -- Last Word

No enthusiasm to develop cricket

The Nairobi Province Cricket Association league has commenced, but there is no let up on the turf wars between the association and the national governing body, Cricket Kenya.

From reliable sources, NPCA the chairman Salim Dhanji left the country last January without as much as a ceremonial handover to the next in line.

The recent NPCA election chaired by the acting chairman Sukhbans Singh was not only unprecedural, but aborted after the executive committee of the association failed to present the audited accounts of the year to members and other anomalies were discovered by delegates.

NPCA has in the past been the heart of cricket in Kenya since its formation in 1985/6, but of late things have not been so good as it totters on the load of poor management.

Cricket Kenya’s election were due in June 2007 as per the memorandum of understanding signed two years ago between the defunct Kenya Cricket Association and the current executive committee led by Samir Inamdar, but they too, failed to take off with several excuses. It now awaits NPCA to have its election before it can call theirs, because under the 2005 agreement, the association was supposed to change its constitution for it to participate in the CK elections.

It was the same constitution that caused a turf war between the association and the defunct KCA on who between the two had the control of the sport in the Nairobi province; a war that culminated in the total collapse of the Nairobi league for two years, between 2003 to 2005.

As usual during campaigns of elections of any nature, camps are formed and all the energy is wasted on schemes and counter schemes on the best way to win even as people come up plot to replace others taking administrative positions. Unfortunately, the same energy and enthusiasm is never put in the development of the sport.

The next month will witness a lot of lobbying and politics, no doubt. It is understood that former Kenya Cricket Association Chairman – Sharad Ghai plotting a comeback after his unceremonious exit of two years ago.

The recent tour of Zimbabwe by the national select team was once again a wake up call on our cricket administrators, especially in regard to the dismal performance in the face of weak opponents. This confirms the sorry state of our poor domestic cricket with the ever dwindling fortunes and hopes for revival.

The recent Afro Asia games in India, which were dominated by the Asians, saw three Kenyan players participate and get an opportunity to rub shoulders with top cricketers in this fixture.
And while Kenya is expected to play host for the next Afro Asian games in June 2008, it is hoped that such tournaments are necessarily to provide our team with the much needed exposure, both in the long version of the game and the capacity to shore up the growth of the game in the country.

The Twenty20 cricket world cup is coming up in South Africa in September, and while it will bring all the top countries together, the common feeling within the cricketing fraternity is that the tour of Zimbabwe and the experience of the afro-Asian games would have given our national team the impetus to perform better in the south African tournament. It is however worth noting that the leading names of the big countries have opted out of the tournament. Kenya is yet to name the squad, even though, there is not much to select from.

There is a lot of cricket going on in the international scene. The series between England and India is expected to be a tough one, Sri Lanka whitewashed Bangladesh while the West Indies salvaged the tour by winning the one day series after being humiliated in the test.

The findings of the investigation on the murder of former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was finally brought to rest with the conclusion that his death may have been natural. This is a big relief especially to the family and the Pakistan national team after they found themselves in a humiliating situation. May God rest his soul in eternal peace.

There have been exciting tennis in the last two months, especially at the French and Wimbledon grand slam championships. While Rafael Nadal has just won his third title in Paris and Roger Federer went on match Bjorn Borg’s record of 5 successive Wimbledon titles the question is how much longer can Federer last owing to the fact this time he was within a couple of shots in the fifth and final set of becoming only the second Spaniard to win the Wimbledon title. And surely one day he will.

By Aasif Karim,