Kenyan cricket returns to familiar, old era wrangles
HAPPIER TIMES. Cricket Kenya chairman Manoj Patel (centre) with Kenya captain Shem Ngoche (second right),coach David Obuya (right), Nepal captain Lamichehhane Sandeep (second left) and Manoj Prabhhakar (left) with the series trophy on August 24, 2022 at Nairobi Gymkhana.
What you need to know:
- The CK Executive Board moved to suspend Solanki following a meeting on August 28 before launching investigations into the federation’s expenditures from 2022.
- The board formed a three-man committee to establish whether funds that Solanki received for Kenya men’s team tour of Jersey in 2022 were properly used among other expenditures including a quarterly grant of $409,000 (Sh52.76 million).
Boardroom wrangles are back at Cricket Kenya (CK) with the game at its lowest ebb.
Cricket had endured a tumultuous decade dominated by leadership feuds and court battles before an all-inclusive election was held on February 26, 2022 that brought in Manoj Narshi Patel as chairman.
The CK Independent Elections Panel conducted the elections following one year of stakeholder’s engagement facilitated by the government constituted CK Normalisation Committee headed by Justice (Retired) Joyce Aluoch.
A new constitution was adopted that provided the legal framework for conducting the elections .
But the envisaged new era of stability and growth has not materialised.
Manoj and CK treasurer Kalpesh Solanki are now under siege from CK Executive Board over “irregular” appointments and expenditure.
The CK Executive Board moved to suspend Solanki following a meeting on August 28 before launching investigations into the federation’s expenditures from 2022.
The board formed a three-man committee to establish whether funds that Solanki received for Kenya men’s team tour of Jersey in 2022 were properly used among other expenditures including a quarterly grant of $409,000 (Sh52.76 million).
However, Solanki dismissed the allegations saying they were coming from a “group of people trying to save themselves.”
At the same meeting, CK Board also moved to stop the services of Kenya head coach, Dodda Ganesh, a former India and Karnataka pacer terming his appointment as “unprocedural” .
The board insists that it made the right decision in relieving Ganesh, 51, of his duties barely a month into the job. A section of the CK Executive Board said that their decision to part ways with Ganesh was influenced by the need to safeguard the 2021 constitution.
They wanted to promote transparency in running the sport locally. Like many other Kenya cricket stakeholders, the board members said that they were in the dark about plans to appoint Ganesh as Kenya’s senior men’s cricket coach. With no advertising of the job and shortlisting of candidates having been done, the CK Executive Board declined to ratify the Indian’s appointment.
They blamed Manoj and the CK Elite Performance and National Squads Sub-Committee for the appointment and directed Ganesh to channel any claims to the CK chairman and other people, who engaged him for the job.
“Any concerns or claims relating to this notice should be channelled to Mr Manoj Patel and any other individuals who irregularly and non-procedurally engaged you in this respect,” added the letter that was signed by Pearlyne Omamo, the Director Women’s Cricket. Omamo. The CK Executive Board is the body mandated with engaging and ratifying the appointment of any individual in any role in the CK.
Manoj did not respond to Nation Sport queries on the appointment.
Are we back to wrangles that ultimately brought Kenyan cricket to its knees?
Jimmy Rayani, who has served as KCA (now CK) chairman from 1994 stepped down in 2003 as the late Sharad Ghai took charge but then Sports Minister Ochillo Ayacko dissolved KCA, putting in place a transition committee. Inamdar would be elected the new chairman in 2005, inheriting debts of more than $500,000 (Sh64.5m) with no assets as KCA changed to Cricket Kenya.
Inamdar was replaced by fellow lawyer Jackie Janmohammed in 2012 after serving for seven and half years.
Janmohammed resigned in 2018 but made a return to be elected again in 2019, a move that heightened the wrangles at CK as stakeholders challenged the legality of the election.
The country lost its One Day International (ODI) status in 2015 after 18 years, when they finished outside the top four in the 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier as they missed out on the 2015 Cricket World Cup.
The consequence was the dearth of top flight teams touring Kenya or the country getting top rate fixtures.
Kenya were relegated from the World Cricket League to the lowly World Cricket League Division III in 2018.
The ICC also stopped funding CK activities at between Sh60 million and Sh70 million annually in August 2019 until a new constitution and office were put in place.
Elections were eventually held on 2022 bringing in Manoj. Narshi Patel taking charge as chairman.
Cricket appeared to have returned on the right track with Kenya once again hosting international cricket matches after almost a decade when Nepal played a series of matches at the Nairobi Gymkhana Club ground in August 2022.
The world cricket body resumed funding CK activities after International Cricket Council (ICC) General Manager of Global Development, William Glenwright toured Kenya in August last year. But the cricket stability was too good to last, it seems.
