Kenya’s dismal performance in the World Cup is down to deep-seated funding and development problems which cricket’s governing body needs to help address urgently, Cricket Kenya chief Tom Sears said on Sunday.
He recommends the formation of a regional league to develop the game in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but Sears said that massive defeats already in the Cup by New Zealand and Pakistan show it will need more than that to bring up the standard.
Kenya badly need the International Cricket Council (ICC) to step in, according to Sears.
“People must know why we are where we are. The performance at the World Cup was a result of not investing in grassroot cricket and a strong domestic league,” he told Reuters.
“The gap is obviously growing wider because countries like Kenya don’t get enough exposure at the top level. They don’t play full members as often as they should to help bridge the gap.
“You don’t expect to emerge from the Nairobi League, which is the highest level here, to start winning matches at the World Cup.”
HUGE MARGINS
Sears said it is from this background that Kenya were able to lose by such huge margins against New Zealand and Pakistan, 10 wickets and 205 runs respectively, in the World Cup in the last week.
“Associates like Kenya need help from ICC to raise the standards of cricket,” said the former Derbyshire chief executive who was also former head of business development for the New Zealand Cricket Board.
“Funding is equally important. Kenya depends solely on the ICC grant of $1,5 million a year for all its programmes, which is less than, for instance, what England Cricket Board gives one county.
“Other associate members receive up to $1 million from their governments and here we don’t receive any funding from the government,” he said after returning home from India.
The ICC has announced that most non-test playing associate members like Kenya will probably miss out for the next World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2015 when 10 instead of 14 teams will participate.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.