SportinKenya

Belated Congratulatory note

2008-08-17T02:07:00.004+03:00

Although It was a while back this blog would like to Congratulate Tusker FC on winning their 4th? CECAFA Club Championship trophy and proving to the rest of Eastern Africa who indeed where the best football in the region.
Tusker FC, coached by former national custodian Jacob 'Ghost' Mulee won out by defeating the mighty Yanga in front of the Tanzanians home crowd in Dar es Salaam. Hopefully this victory will mark a watershed in the efforts to put Kenyan football on the global stage

A Day at the cricket: Kenya v. Exeter CC 28th July 2008

2008-07-29T19:46:00.014+03:00

July 28th 2008 and The Kenya cricket team were in Exeter for the second of their two matches against the local team Exeter CC. With the first match having gone to the wire with the Kenyans just getting home by 10 runs. The second match, a T20 match would pit see the Kenyans looking for a more comprehensive victory to settle the nerves and te Exeter team looking to claim a major scalp with victory over an established international side.

Unlike other match reports that have appeared on this blog I was fortunate enough to be there in person to witness the action with my own eyes and even get some time to converse with some of the Kenya touring squad most especially Match analyst Alfed Njuguna, All three of the Obuya brothers as well and so on. In the end Kenya went on to wrap up a fairly comfortable 5 wicket win of the back of some impressive bowling from Tony Suji, Ragheb Aga and Hiren Varaiya, and an opening stand between Kennedy Obuya and Maurice Ouma which effectively ended the match as a contest.

(In the Photo From left: Myself, Steve Tikolo ar his photogenic best, Winnie Maina my sister)

The Match

Having arrived in Exeter, from a weekend of sampling some of the most exciting non-mainstream music at the WOMAD festival, several hours ahead of the start of the match, and having enjoyed a few hours walk about in the city itself. And with the arrival of several interested spectators.

With both teams having gone through their various warm up rituals and with the lineups and the toss decided it was time to get going. Kenya had won the toss on a track with ominously visible cracks and with Steve Tikolo resting it was allrounder Thomas Odoyo who made the decision to stick the opposition in and within a few overs he had justification for his decision, bowling out D.F Lye one of the Exeter openers for 4 leaving Exeter at 21/1. A few boundaries later and it was beginning to look as though the Exeter side were going to shake off the early setback and gone on to post a reasonable total when a few changes in the bowling attack led to a cluster of wickets. Firstly a well directed fullish delivery from Tony Suji had trapped leg before, Ragheb Aga then got in on the action taking a sharp catch off his own bowling to remove and when Hiren Varaiya chip in with a brace of his own, what looked like a steady platform for Exeter at 51/2 had slipped to 88 with only two wickets left in their innings. Nonetheless the home side were just about able to hobble to 117/9 off their twenty overs.

The bowling unit having done their bit it as down to the batsmen, led by Kennedy Otieno and Morris Ouma to finish the job. And with two sparkling drives off the first over from Ouma, the tome was set for the run chase. Within no time Kenya's 50 was up but an ominous looking raincloud meant that Kenya's run chase was alomost brought to a halt but the rain passed without the need for bringing out the covers and the charge continued.
With the drizzle letting up and Exeter turning to their spinners it seemed that they had found a way back into the game as Kenya began to leak wickets reguarly but with less than 20 needed for the win with 5 overs remaining, a cool headed partnership between Thomas Odoyo and Ragheb Aga was enough to clinch a 5 wicket victory with Odoyo putting away the last runs with a lofted drive into the cover region for four.

Reactions

With a vital T20 World Cup qualifier ahead Kenya will hope that the aggression of their opening bolwers will be enough to put away the bowling attacks of their opponents in Ireland.

Otieno, Aga back in Kenya squad

2008-07-12T12:51:00.006+03:00

Kennedy Otieno and Ragheb Aga were the the only two changes to the Kenya squad that will beging their season definiing tour of Europe. The 16 man squad will spend two weeks in the Sothe of England playing a series of warm up matches against various cluba and minor counties before they head off to Ireland to play in the qualifying tournament for the ICC T20 World cup in England in 2009. This will be followed by Intercontinental Cup matches against Scotland and the Netherlands as well as several one day internationals.

The return of Ragheb Aga despite his not playing in Cricket Kenya's Sahara Elite League maks a fairly successful year for the young paceman who landed a one year conract with English County side Sussex, for whom he has taken 7 wickets at 23.14 apiece from 5 innings in the County Championship. His familiarity with local conditions will be important to the success of the tour. Kennedy Obuya on the other hand has been the leading runscorer in the Sahara Elite league scoring two centuries in leading the Southern Stars to the 2 day league title.

Full Squad.

Sahara Elite League: Season one

2008-06-29T14:05:00.011+03:00

With the last weekend of First Class matches failing to produce a definite winner the inagural season of Cricket's Sahara Elite league drew to a rather low key, if not somewhat dissapointing, conclusion. The Southern Stars, under the captaincy of veteran wicket-keeper batsman Kennedy Obuya, managed to eke out just about enough points from their two drawn games and one walk over victory to win the 2-day competition meaning that at the end of the entire series the only franchise that was left empty handed was the Western Chiefs.

With the competition having been put back severally due to various reasons including most unfortunately the violence that rocked the country following disputed general elections, it was going to be a somewhat difficult task to make the competition work when a huge chunk of trhe most ideal time to play the matches had been eaten away. Nonetheless the first two formats went without a hitch with The Eastern Aces blowing away the competition in the T20 competition and the Northern Nomads carrying the day in the 50 overs One day league. However with very little time left till they were set to begin Cricket Kenya opted to postpone the last, and probably most significant, part of the competition the three day league. The reason being unfavourable weather would make it difficult to play a meaningful competition during the expected rainy season months of April and May.

With the competition now set to start in June it became apparent that the fact that a sinificant number of players drafted to play would not be available for action for their teams due to school and work commitments and the three day competition became a two day competition, which although made it possible for the teams to just about scrape together playing XIs meant that ultimately there was not enough time in any of the games to force a result with both the Southern Stars, and Northern Nomads coming desperately close in pursuit of winnable totals.

With the objective of getting the competition off the ground completed despite all the difficulties along the way there were definitely a few lessons to be learned both positive and negative. Though the competition was closesly fought the brevity of the tournaen might be an issue to look into with bothe One Day tournaments concluded in only 12 days of cricket and when it comes to selecting the best of the best to repent Kenya in 50 overs and T20 matches 3 matche seems a little small a number of games to consider. Crickcet Kenya could consider inviting representative sides from Uganda and Tanzania to bulk up the competition and guarantee each side at least 5 matches or doubling the number of games each side plays so there can be the prospect of home and away games. They could also consider the prospect of having the games televised on local television stations as a means of gettig the public interested as well as drawing investors. Aside from that, now that the competition is up and running, hopefully we are witnessing the beginning of something that could become central to Kenyan and possibly regional cricket for years to come.

World Cup 2010: So the journey begins

2008-05-16T22:58:00.007+03:00

The journey to the 2010 World cup for Kenya's Harambee began to take shape in earnest with two home wins and an impressive 0-0 away draw against Zimbabwe in Harare (I know, its amazing how given the situation poorly the situation is over there such a high profile global organisation such as FIFA continues to function unabated, but that is another topic for some other blue eyed idealist Joe Blogger to cry about). Anyway after the now near ritualistic dispute over who is really in charge of the KFF and therefore the Harambee Stars, yep after the court order and appeals and the ominous threat of yet another FIFA ban and appeals were gotten out of the way the FIFA approved lot got their way and the campaign finally got away with Mathare United custodian Francis Kimanzi taking up the hot seat and with it the hopes of the uniquely fickle yet fiercely patriotic football fans.

The first assignment, an away match against an improving Namibia side, resulted in last minute heartbreak as the Stars went down 2-1. fortunately or unfortunately Mr Kimanzi only ahd the one week to turn things around l with the doom mongers already starting to surface before the second match at home against group favourites Guinea. The result, a highly reasuring and confident display of counter attacking football and a 2-0 win featuring goals from Auxerre based striker Denis Oliech. That and of course the issues of poor crowd control that have become sadly a common feature with important football matches at Nyayo stadium.

Having got the issue of that first win under new management out of the way the Stars then looked to build up some momentum with another positive result in the first of two matches against Zimbabwe (the second as stated earlier ending in a goal less stalemate in Harare). The result again another impressive looking 2-0 win with the Harambee Stars again showing the sort of free flowing football that has put Mathare United (Francis Kimanzi's other team) in the driver's seat in the Premier league.

So now the Harambee Stars sit joint top with Guinea at the top of group 2 on 7 points with matches against Guinea in Conakry and Namibia in Nairobi left and needing only to finish as one of 8 best runners up to make it to round three of the qualifiers their destiny is very much in theri own hands. A home win against Namibia and a draw in Conakry should just about secure qualification though a win against Guinea would see Kenya win their group.

Player Watch 3: Ragheb Aga

2008-04-10T21:05:00.004+03:00

It has come to the attention of this blogger that one Ragheb Aga, having earned himself one year contract with current English County Cricket Champions Sussex , has earned selection to play in the traditional season opening fixture against the M.C.C at Lords. In so doing in addition to being the first player from Kenya since Collins Obuya to play in the full County Championship, is the first to participate in this particular fixture

Ragheb Aga is a product of Kenya's youth team system having captained the Kenya u19 National team in 2003 and represented the full national side in their tours of the West Indies in 2003-4 and in the Champions trophy in 2004, going even as far as captaining a young Kenya side in an Intercontinental Cup tie against Scotland in later that year. He last wore Kenyan colours in this match against Zimbabwe 'A'.

Player watch 2: Kennedy Obuya

2008-03-13T23:43:00.006+03:00

Having been dropped from the side in mid 2006 veteran wicket-keeper batsman Kennedy Obuya has had a bit of an Indian Summer playing grade cricket in Australia and scoring heavily for the Caboolture Snakes. He has more recently returned to Kenya to captain the newly formed Southern Stars in Kenya's Elite league where he has continued to score heavily even getting a 93 to lead his side to their first win of the competition in the 50 over competition.

This video is from the 1999 World cup where he takes a marvellous diving catch off the bowling of Jimmy Kamande, who was at the time a medium pace bowler. How times have changed...

Athletics Kenya sends team to World Indoors

2008-03-02T01:01:00.005+03:00

With the Olympics happening this year and a strong showing from the World Championships in Osaka, Athletics Kenya will be looking to build some more confidence and momentum by sending a
team of athletes to compete at the World Indoor athletics Championships in Valencia Later this week.

Atheletes include veterans such as Wilfed Bungei and up and coming stars Daniel Kipchirchir Komen. Details on the rest of the team from the Eats African Standard here.

Kenya's U15's off to the Carribean

2008-02-29T20:00:00.008+03:00

A little newswire picked up from a certain newspaper says that Kenya's u15 will be one of several high profile cricket nations participating in the CLICO-International Under-15 Cricket Tournament in April this year. The other seven teams that will be there are :the West Indies, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Holland, Bangladesh and the International Cricket Council (ICC) Americas team, comprised of players from Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands and Bahamas. According to this report Kenya open their campaign against the ICC America's team in a knockout tournament that will continue up until the 24th of April. This will be folled by a round robin tournament which will itself culminate in a semifinal and a final.

This blog writer would like to wish the boys all the best of luck as they face off against some of the best talent that the world has to offer at this level.

Kenya's Premier league gets a facelift

2008-02-25T01:57:00.003+03:00

The effects of KFF's partnership with media giants Super Sport are beginning to be felt as they launched a new website and logo dedicated to the Kenyan Premier League. Hopefully this is a sign of better things to come...

All systems go for zonal league

2008-02-14T02:43:00.007+03:00

With the announcement of captains, coaches, team names and fixtures for Kenya's newly set up Zonal Cricket league Cricket Kenya has in its short existence achieved a milestone that the old KCA for all its achievements and flaw could not achieve: setting up a truly nationwide oriented domestic competition for cricket in Kenya. Further to that if the league is able to run its full course then on Wednesday the 26th of March Kenyan cricket fans will become witnesses to one of the few successful efforts to entrench multi-day cricket in a country that has not yet attained test status. But prior to all that history making there will first be a T20 competition involving the four franchises, Namely the Northern Nomads, The Western Chiefs, the Eastern Aces, and the Southern Stars.

Matches began this weekend with the inaugural round of T20 matches (Full Fixture list here)at the Nairobi Gymkhana, with the Western chief's led by Peter Ongondo, taking on the Southern Stars led by Kennedy Obuya in the morning fixture and the Steve Tikolo led Eastern Aces facing off against the northern Nomads who were captained by Thomas Odoyo in the afternoon match. And although details have been very difficult to come by it is understood by this blogger that the Stars and the Chiefs both raced to convincing 9 wicket wins over their opponents in matches where bowling first was clearly the better option.

With both matches being unexpectedly one sided, with the Southern Stars worryingly shot out for a mere 58? all out it is hoped that the rest of the competition that they along with the othe team hat eneded up on the wrong side of a 9 wicket defeat. Early indication pointed to the usual suspects doing most of the damage with Alex Obanda claiming the tournaments first fifty as weel as some dominant batting from the evergreen Steve Tikolo and the recently capped Jagdavi Jesani. While the players who were reportd to have shone with the ball are Moses and Elijah Otieno, Tony Suji, Nelson Odhiambo and Peter Ongondo

Scorecards (Courtesy of Cricketeurope)
Eastern Aces v. Northern Nomads
Western Chiefs v. Southern Stars

Well Done again

2008-02-14T02:31:00.005+03:00

After enduring a difficult visit to Wellington during the New Zealand sevens Kenya bounced back in some style in San Diego California chalking up a first ever win against Canada and yet another upset over former series championa England in the Main Vup Quarterfinals to get to only their second ever Main Cup semi finals ever. They now sit in 5th place in the overall rankings and have now overhauled their highests ever season points tally with Full details available here as well as national coach Ben Ayimba's reaction

Out in the Cold

2008-01-30T17:15:00.000+03:00

Of the many commentaries out there lamenting the inability of Kenyan and East African football to scale the limits of success on the African stage or globally what better way to encapsulate the scenario than in the 1000 word that are a picture.
Thusly while the football pwers that are the likes of Egypt, Cameroon , Ivory Coast fight over the right to the claim of best football side in Africa, our own boys sit at home watching from the sidelines. Maybe with a little more organization it might be a little different next time.

Back down to earth with a thud

2008-01-30T17:14:00.001+03:00

Kenya were last week served with a dose of reality after their world conquering feats of the first two legs of the IRB when finished as losing finalists in the bottom tier shield competition in the New Zealand leg. They therefore remain on 12 points in the overall standing and slip to 8th place from 5th ahead of their next assignment in USA where they open in a less difficult Pool C where their opponents will be Argentina, Canada and Chile.

Worrying signs...

2008-01-30T17:13:00.000+03:00

Having won one match and lost one match Kenya return from Sharjah back at the top of the Intercontinental Cup log and unless some wheeling and dealing from Cricket Kenya does otherwise will not be playing any International level matches until they set of to Europe and the UK where they will face their biggest rivals for the tag 'best cricketing nation without test status' on their turf i.e. The Netherlands and Scotland. As the individual match reviews for the Namibia game are available here, and for the UAE game here, this entry will be more or less a look at the overall tour than any one match in particular.

Gerry Snyman's innings may have been a once in a lifetime miracle that invariably cannot be discounted however one looks at the match, that Kenya got shot out for 135 having had a whole day and half to negotiate a 237 run chase on an increasingly bowler friendly pitch and that in both matches there was only 100+ partnership, (the sixth wicket stand between James Kamande and Thomas Odoyo in the first innings against UAE) will leave more some worried about the bruttleness of Kenya's batting order. That sid thee were some marvelous individual performances with Hiren Varaiya claiming his 50th first Class wicket in only his 12th match against Namibia and then going on to claim his fourth 5 wicket haul against the UAE. Peter Ongondo also had a strong showing with the ball claiming a total of 9 wickets in both matches while Thomas Odoyo's century and James Kamande's Half century gainst UAE were the biggest highlights with the bat.

Though it was unfortunate that the Namibia game that was originally set for Nairobi was moved to Sharjah for security reasons one would have still have thought Kenya would have too much firepower for Namibia, and that their win over UAE who despite their previous World cup experience should not have really have come with so much of a struggle will give their more illustrious opponents the Netherlands and former tournament winners Scotland hope when they host Kenya later on in the year as it has to be noted that when Ireland, did last play UAE in the Intercontinental Cup, soon after their disappointing World Cricket League, it was all one way traffic.
On the other hand Ireland, the current defending champions have to travel to Namibia (whose extra first class experience could well get them another upset win) though and in all
likelihood the UAE will not fold so meekly this time when the two teams meet again in March.
Nonetheless it will be crucial in the months leading up to these crucial potentially tournament defining matches that Kenya do something about strengthening the resolve of the top order so they do not find themselves 5 or six wickets down with barely anything on the scorecard and fighting to stay in the match against Scotland or the Netherlands come their matches in August this year.

My Two Cents

2008-01-18T20:40:00.000+03:00

Althoght htis post is not sport related there won't be anything sports realted to put up on this blog while ths crisis affecting Kenya continues without being solved

I agree with taking action against injustices when they occur and generally refusing to let issues like that fester until they explode in even worse consequences I do not think that the aggrieved parties have so far done anything to actually resolve the primary concern here. The flawed election.

It is one thing to feel rightly aggrieved when an opponent is declared winner of an election in the dodgy circumstances that saw Kibaki returned to state house and with the glaring irregularities in the counting process. The unfortunate thing is that though they do have a right to be aggrieved the opposition rather than uphold exercise the institutions that are meant to protect from and deal with these miscarriages of justice, have deemed it neccessary to further undermine the very purpose of their existence by resorting to fighting with the state’s security apparatus using mobs of largely disillusioned and misguided followers. What has been clear from the rhetoric on the ODM side is that apparently unless their guy Raila Odinga is in State house then under no circumstances can the election be deemed credible leave alone democratic. While it would completely absurd to say that they, the ODM have no reason to feel cheated and should just lie down and get on with life they should not take this as some kind of leave to ignore the ‘civilised’ route by trying to bully their way to their objective at the expense of the very thing they claim to defend, democracy and the respect of democratic institutions.

On the flip side the cynicism with which the people now sat very comfortably in the government benches have tried and continue to try deny that something is genuinely wrong is very dissapointing. Yes PNU’s own candidate garnered four million votes and could very well have won the election despite the irregularities that occured in the whole process but this is no excuse to try sweep everything under the carpet and pretend that everything will be fine and the troubles will ‘go away if ignored for long enough.’ over 500 people are dead, hundreds of thousands are homeless, 3 constituencies do not have an MP millions if not billions of shillings worth of property have been damaged and the numerous communities have been shredded (not for the first time) by the violence and if something is not done these things will happen again and again.

But then again thats probably not going to happen now is it?

Chance to open a gap

2008-01-05T22:06:00.000+03:00

Kenya have an opportunity to open up a nice lead in the Intercontinental Cup when they play two relatively winnable matches away to the U.A.E in Dubai and a home game a against a resurgent Namibia team which though has impressed in their two matches should not have enough class to really trouble Kenya. having dispatched Canada and Bermuda

Kenya will arrive with a largely unchanged squad, in Dubai expecting to close out two relatively easy wins to further extend their lead on top of the table and put pressure on their rivals, however despite that facet national team coach Alfred Njuguna has said they will not take their opponents lightly.

Namibia, Kenya's first opponents have several years of participation in South Africa's domestic competition and if their demolition of Canada late last year is anything to go by then they should prove more difficult in the game which will be played in Sharjah. The last time these two team met in this competition a Kenya team just starting to find its way back in the international scene after numerous internal disputes had nearly crippled the game in Kenya and only just about got enough bonus points from a drawn semifinal to get into a final that they eventually lost to Ireland. This time around a lot of water has since gone under the bridge and although Namibia have also on the up with them sitting in second place in the group after their hard fought win over the UAE earlier in the week ,Kenya should prove too strong for them.

2008 Highlights

2007-12-25T18:03:00.001+03:00

2008 looks to e a ig year for Kenyan sportsmen and women all over the world and although our beloved Harambee Stars will be missing out on the premier event on the African Continent, The Africa Cup of Nations, there action on the domestic season will hopefully give the die hard fans who still attend these matches reason enough that there is enough talent on the local scene to change that. The rugby and cricket teams on the other hand will have quite a bit on their own plates with both looking for success which for, while for rugby will be unprecedented, will have been long overdue for the cricket team.

First up will be Th Intercontinental cup in cricket which see the best Non-test teams face each other in a league from whence the best two teams face of in a final in a neutral venue to decide which one of them is the best at First Class cricket. The current tournament which started way back in June currently has Kenya on top of the table before there two matches in January against UAE and Namibia, Kenya will need to cash in on these winnable matches before they head of to face more adept opposition in the form Of the Dutch and the Scots. Outside of that if things work out well Kenya will also face Test nations South Africa in two One day matches, and the possibility of hosting Zimbabwe for a full blown tour including a number of First Class matches and One Day internationals. Also in th pipeline is a possible forur nation tournament involving immediate rivals in the Cricket world rankings Ireland, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Rugby returns in a big way in February when the Rugby sevens tournament returns in early February and with Kenya having made such a strong statement in the first two legs in Dubai and George making the main up quarter finals on both occasions and winning the plate in George knocking over such traditional rugby powerhouses such as England on the way, the rugby team will be looking to build on this platform and finishing well in the top ten, maybe even the top five, who knows ? Sky is the limit.

However the biggest event on the 2008 Kenyan sports calendar is undoubtedly the Olympics in Beijing where Kenya's athletics will be wanting to extend their revival at the recent World Athletics World Championships in Osaka with another huge medal haul. Also looking to get in amongst the medal winners will be the boxers and maybe if things go really positively there might be one or two Kenyan swimmers lining up at the finals of one or two strokes.

On the Domestic front there will be the KFF Premier league which is looking to run uninterrupted for the second successive season in a few years and will be available to view all over the continent on Supersprt following a multimillion shilling 4 year television deal. Also on the agenda will be the usual rugby sevens circuit peaking in mid year with the Safari Sevens and if nothing goes worong for the first time Kenya will be witnessing the best cricketing talent on offer playing each other in a proposed national league.

Unspectacular Stars out on penalties

2007-12-19T14:57:00.000+03:00

Kenya's considerably unspectacular display at the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup was brought to an end on Tuesday when they were knocked out in the quarter-finals, by fierce local rivals Uganda, 4-2 on penalties after The Harambee Stars had fought back from an early first half goal to take tha match into extra time at one a piece. Having not quite dazzled at the tournament Kenya may well consider themselves somewhat fortunate to have mad the knock-out stages of the tournament having lost both their first two matches in the group stages even if they went out through the relative lottery that is the penalty shoot out, a number of issues both on and off the pitch will, and probably should raise concerns with the footballing fraternity back home.

First of all the lack of a full time manager which has perennially plagued the team since 2004 with numerous different coaches, both local and foreign, coming in and out of the job with various levels of acrimony and generally very little long term success. Even the current incumbent, who is also the reigning premier league champions Tusker's head coach Jacob Mulee is not certain to stay with the side citing club commitments and the KFF will need to look at establishing some kind of continuity in the position of head coach if they are to build a Harambee Stars dynasty that the fans can enjoy.

Kenya Scrape through in TZ

2007-12-15T20:37:00.001+03:00

Being that this is the first time in two or three years Kenya actually got to the stage of kicking the football around against their opponents on the field in their attempts to win back the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup that they only just scraped through into the quarter-finals on the back of finishing third in a group of four and recording their sole victory over a Somalia team that were never really more than the whipping boys of the group should again raise a few questions about where Kenyan football has been headed ever since the heady heights of winning their first ever match on Africa's highest stage at the Africa Cup Nations back in 2004. despite coming into the tournament one of the favourites and generally recognised as one of the strongest squads at the tournament even without most of their European based stars, the Harambee Stars first fell 2-1 to the hosts, Tanzania in a game they had a number of chances of winning and were then stunned 1-0 by a previously unfancied Burundi side before they made some effort at compensating for the previous matches by beating Somalia 2-0 in a match which saw their first goals to result from open play (the consolation against Tanzania being as a result of a penalty)

Kenya now find themselves facing a quarter-final clash against Uganda, who have been in considerably better form not only in this tournament but over the past few years, and will be definitely have to raise their game for this match lest they risk elimination from the tournament now that there is no more room for error left in the tournament. Bigger performances on the pitch from the Likes of Allan Wanga in attacking and relative veterans in the squad Andrew Oyombe in defence to name just a few to get into the semi-fials.

Although it may be easy to heap the blame on the coaching when the going gets tough one has to remember that while the current head coach Jacob 'ghost' Mulee may not Alex Ferguson, or Jose Mourinho, he certainly is not solely responsible for less than perfect results from the boys considering that he had only a fortnight at most to work with the squad and two hastily arranged friendly matches against Oman in the week before arriving in Tanzania one can see some of the symptoms of a rather undercooked squad starting the tournament performing at less than one hundred percent and with the usual troubles of allowance payments rearing their head even as Kenya prepared for their do or die clash with Somalia a number of questions have to be answered by the board which is still fighting with rebel factions over its legitimacy to run Kenyan Football ,an issue that not only was at the centre of the bungled preparations for the regional U17 football tournament but was cited as a key factor in their missing out on a potentially luctrative sponsorship deal from EABL on how serious they are on taking Kenyan football into the future and until these questions are decidedly answered there is only so far Kenay as a footballing nation can expect to go.

World Cup Qualifier Matches Released

2007-12-14T01:12:00.000+03:00

CAF has released the fixture list of Kenya' s World cup qualifiers. Details available here

2008 Provisional schedule is out

2007-12-14T01:02:00.000+03:00

The ICC have launched a provisional ODI schedule for its HPP countries which sees Kenya playing Scotland twice away Ireland in 8 ODI matches of which 5 will be at home and 3 away as well as the Netherlands in a single match in August. Now Kenya do not have any matches against test teams scheduled yet which is rather disappointing as it won't help the boys gain any experience playing the kind of top quality opposition they will need to build the necessary confidence at the highest level this list is provisional and it is hoped that something will be organised. However it is to be noted that on top of having to prove their credentials in the T20 games in Ireland when Kenya's biggest new rival in global cricket host the qualifiers for the T20 World Cup scheduled for England in 2009, on top of the other 8 ODI's against the same opponents mentioned above, two convincing series wins against the only other Non-Test team on the ODI championship table should do Kenya's relatively poor ranking some justice, and maybe, just maybe open up a slim opportunity for Kenya to earn a place at the next Champions Trophy and another shot at the Test teams as early as 2008.

Time for the Young'ens to shine

2007-12-05T15:35:00.000+03:00

Next week sees Kenya hosting the Africa Cricket Association under 15's cricket championships with teams from Uganda, Tanzania and fro the first time Rwanda (though they will only be sending a boys team) participating

According to this report from the Daily Nation, the defending champions, Kenya's, squad of 18 players including two from Rift valley has been training at the Sir Ali Muslim ground in preparation for the tournament and while they are confident of success the women's team will be wary of Tanzania comprising of players who play in the boys leagues.

All in all it will be a positive reflection on Kenya's youth system if the boy's team successfully defend their title and equally so if the girls put on a good showing at the tournament.

Positive start, never a bad thing

2007-12-01T02:13:00.000+03:00

Kenya got their Sevens challenge to a decidedly more positive start this year at Dubai reaching the Main cup quarter-finals of this year's tournament and ending up in the plate semifinals just one year after losing all three of their pool matches in last year's event at Dubai, given that the resiliences Kenya showed in pulling off a come from behind victory against Wales and even in coming close to repeating the antics against top teams Samoa in the group stages , South Africa in the main Cup Quarter-finals, and Argentina in the Plate Semifinals certainly bodes well for the team's morale and grit ahead of the George Sevens tournament next week where they have been put in what must certainly is the tournaments group of death.

Having come within minutes if not seconds of holding group favourites Samoa to a draw in their opening match of the tournament after rallying from 19-9 down at one stage, Kenya up a notch in the second game and making sure this time against Wales to finish the comeback with a win when they completed a comeback this time from 12-0 down to wrap up a 14-12 win before booking a place in the main cup quarter-final with a 12-7 win over USA, and although they would eventually come unstuck unable to quite pull off comebacks aagainst South Africa in the Quarter-finals of the Main Cup or Argentina in the Semis of the Plate it was all in all better than what Kenya have produced at recent Dubai tournaments and in getting a few points on the chart where they have been rather hard to come by will be of additional satisfaction to the team as they llok to finish higher in the championship than ever before.

Kenya shine in George

2007-11-30T04:20:00.000+03:00

Kenya continued their positive start in the IRB Rugby Sevens World series with another strong showing at George. Having come of the back of a surprise quarter-final appearance in Dubai the boys went and repeated the same coming out of what was a decidedly much more difficult group containing multiple championship winners New Zealand and regular cup contenders, England, by upsetting England 17-7 seeing off Zimbabwe.... and narrowly losing out 19-0 to the All Blacks to edge into the Main Cup Quarter-finals in second place in the group. However where in Durban Kenya returned trophy-less here Kenya were able to hold their nerve first against Scotland, then against USA to win the plate winning the games 17-15 and 15-14 respectively.

This massive performance now puts Kenya in tied 5th place in the overall championship as it breaks for the winter and come march when the next even t is due it is hoped the boys can build on their efforts and put together some more solid performances and finish higher up the ladder than ever before.