Obuya: Kenya needs to prepare better for World Cup return
Kenya's batsman Irfan Karim (left) bats under pressure from Nepal's Wicketkeeper Aarif Sheikh during their first of the five International Twenty20 Cricket match at Nairobi Gymkhana ground on August 25, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Kenya last week topped in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional “A” contest, to join Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe in the final round of the global championships’ qualifiers
- Efforts to get a comment from the Cricket Kenya (CK) chairman Manoj Patel regarding the plans to contract the players were futile as he failed to respond to calls and text messages
- Thomas Odoyo, a member of the CK Selection Committee told Nation Sport that the players are yet to be contracted due to lack of funds
National men’s cricket team coach David Obuya fears that their preparations for the final round of the 2024 International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Twenty20 (T20) World Cup qualifiers may be hampered if the players are not tied down with contracts.
Kenya last week topped in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional “A” contest, to join Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe in the final round of the global championships’ qualifiers.
Rwanda who hosted the contest also made the cut by virtue of finishing second in the competition. Namibia will host the last stage of the World Cup qualifiers (World Cup Africa regional qualifiers) sometime next year.
It will include the top two teams in the Sub-Regional Africa “B” qualifiers also to be held in Rwanda from December 1 to 9.
Only the winner and runners-up in the World Cup Africa regional qualifiers will clinch tickets to the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be jointly hosted by West Indies and the United States in June.
Obuya said Kenya can upset their opponents in Namibia if they get good preparations.
He said since the players are currently not tied down to contracts, it is difficult to assemble all of them for training since some are always engaged at their places of work.
“It is one step away from the World Cup so I would want us to prepare like a team going to face India or Australia in the World Cup,” said the former Kenya international. “It will be difficult to have a full squad in training if the players are not contracted. They can only train twice a week because they are engaged at work and that is not enough. It will be a big boost if the government can come in and help in the preparations by making sure the players are contracted.”
Efforts to get a comment from the Cricket Kenya (CK) chairman Manoj Patel regarding the plans to contract the players were futile as he failed to respond to calls and text messages.
But Thomas Odoyo, a member of the CK Selection Committee told Nation Sport that the players are yet to be contracted due to lack of funds.
He said the board is almost fulfilling all the ICC requirements after which they expect it to release funds to the Patel-led body, thus some of the players will be contracted.
The ICC demands include; having a functional secretariat by filling the positions of the Development Director, Chief Finance Officer and Chief Executive Officer and also an audit of the CK accounts.
“Once we get our funding (from the ICC), we should be able to have some of the players on contract," said Odoyo, clarifying that despite the lack of the contracts, the players are always paid their dues for services offered to the national team.
Obuya said they want to prepare for the World Cup Africa regional qualifiers “as long as possible” and that Kenya will be well prepared for the competition if they play at least 20 matches against teams ranked above them.
Kenya are currently placed 29th in the men’s ICC T20 rankings. He said they will look to beef up the squad with one batsman and two spinners.
