Expiry of committee’s mandate may affect local cricket activities

What you need to know:

  • The women’s team will fight for the one place in the ICC Africa Women Twenty20 World Cup qualifier reserved for the continent in the global qualifier.
  • The women event is slated for Zimbabwe from May 3-13.
  • The women qualifier has attracted nine teams: Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda and hosts Zimbabwe.

Operations at Cricket Kenya could come to a standstill following the expiry of the mandate of an interim committee formed to run the game locally.

The interim committee, headed by Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association chairman, Tom Tikolo, had been appointed on December 18, last year by Rashid Echesa who was the Sports Cabinet at the time, had a 90-day mandate. The mandate of the interim committee expired on March 17.

The other officials of the committee are Harper Singh Sehmi (vice-chairman), former Kenyan international Kennedy Obuya (treasurer) and Kalpesh Solanki (development director).
The formation of the interim committee breath life into Cricket Kenya at a time there was leadership vacuum in the federation. Cricket Kenya employees were paid outstanding dues, and funding was freed to enable Kenya Under-19 team to compete in the 2020 International Cricket Council Africa World Cup qualifier in Windhoek, Namibia.
With the expiry of the mandate given to the interim committee to operate CK bank accounts, fresh instructions must be given to the bank by Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed.

Obuya has pleaded with CS Amina Mohammed to renew the committee’s mandate to give members of the Constitution Review Committee time to complete their work.

Obuya also said the committee will need money to prepare both men and women’s national teams to compete in their respective ICC Africa World Twenty20 qualifier matches.

The national men’s team qualified for the continental event during last year’s Eastern sub-region qualifier in Kigali that ran from July 7-14.

Six teams - Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Namibia and hosts Uganda - will fight it out for two places reserved for Africa in the global qualifiers.

The women’s team will fight for the one place in the ICC Africa Women Twenty20 World Cup qualifier reserved for the continent in the global qualifier.

The women event is slated for Zimbabwe from May 3-13.

The women qualifier has attracted nine teams: Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda and hosts Zimbabwe.