Kenya, tipped by some as one of the teams to watch, were easily beaten by an ICC Americas team in the first round of the Clico International Under-15 Championship. Set a modest 134 to win, ICC Americas eased to a six-wicket win with more than 13 overs to spare.
Kenya won the toss but never got their innings going and limped to 133. Bermuda’s Joshua Gilbert, who had taken 2 for 11 with his offspin, played the anchor innings with an unbeaten 43 off 97 balls, twice being dropped, but that was not enough to win him the Man-of-the-Match award which went to Nitisj Kumar who took 3 for 14.
In the day’s other game, Pakistan beat Ireland by eight wickets to book a semi-final against Bangladesh while ICC Americas will play West Indies. Ireland managed only 99 off 43.3 overs, Usman Qadir, the son of the legendary Abdul Qadir, taking 3 for 22, a score Pakistan passed in 20.5 overs.
You have three new American Cricket enthusiasts. The Irish team stayed at our hotel in Barbados, and we talked a bit to the coaches, Brian Dougherty(?) (Dockerty;phonetic--sorry) and his assistant, also Brian. We bought a book on Cricket,which was way to technical, and went out to the Kensington Oval at 10:00 AM, Sunday April 20th to see Ireland play Pakistan. After a few moments of play one of our group approached an English couple we knew from our hotel. He was shortly joined by the father of one of the Irish boys, and this gentleman very patiently explained the basics of the game to him, and thus to us. Although Ireland lost, we enjoyed the game immensely. Later, at the hotel, we were talking to Brian's wife, Pauline, and I promised her a book by an Irish-American lad who lives near us called "The Donkey Pilgrim". The author is Kevin O'Hara, and he lives in Pittsfield Massachusetts. The team left for Trinidad before I could get an address. Can anyone help me connect? Thank you.
Kenya's pathetic performances in the Under-15 tournament - not a single win and heavy losses - is a clear indication of virtually non-existent of junior development programmes in Kenya. How was the team picked without any under-15 local tournaments? Kenya do not even have a regualr under 19 or Kenya Á teams to serve as a feeder to the National team. Hence, the 14 or so contracted National Players select themselves for National duties. That is how Kenya Cricket has sunk.
RSS feed
