Kenya have selected five new players for the East and Central Africa youth tournament which gets underway on Sunday.
The five new players include Nikit Shaha, Harrison Ambani, Ivan karim, Deresh Patel and David Muibo. The team of 14 players was named as the team did their final touches today at Sir Ali Muslim club in Nairobi.
Coach David Asiji said only four players who featured in last year's tournament are in the squad among them Kennedy Owino, Immanuel Bundi and Kewal Patel.
Asiji said they are seeking to reclaim the title from Uganda who beat them in the final last year.
The event will feature four countries from east and central Africa among them hosts Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
Full story at Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s site.
It’s good news that Kenya is looking to nurture young cricketers. Their performances at their first three appearances at the ICC World Cups – in 1996, 1999 and 2003, were commendable and inspirational.
But they seem to have declined since then, with them being complete washouts in the ICC Champions Trophy 2004, the ICC World Cup 2007 and the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2007. They seem to have been hit hard by the absence of veterans like Maurice Odumbe, Kennedy Otieno, Martin Suji, Dipak Chudasama, Ravindu Shah, Asif Karim and Hitesh Modi in particular. The only bright spot seems to be all-rounder, Thomas Odoyo who bagged the ICC Associate Player of the Year award 2007. New talents like Collins Obuya and Tanmay Mishra seem too few and too far between. Kenya should identify cricketing talents from the grassroot level and nurture them well. This will help them in being optimistic at the next editions of the ICC world tournaments and thereafter.
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