Cricket coach Odumbe has tough mission

Kenya's batting coach Maurice Odumbe gives instructions to players during training at Simba Union, Nairobi. [Courtesy]

Under new coach Maurice Odumbe, the National Cricket Team has demonstrated why they are heads and shoulders above in the region with wins over Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda at the ongoing Africa B qualifiers in Kigali.

This is as they launch the bid for the 2020 World T20 tournament in Australia. The performance has been a morale booster to Odumbe who took over from Thomas Odoyo after a dismal show at the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cricket League, which also saw the team relegated to Division Three.

While we congratulate Odumbe for a good start in the national team, we remind him that his work has only just begun.

As he strives to book Kenya a ticket to the Africa region qualifiers, which will be used to pick a team to the world event in Australia, he has a tougher mission than the Africa qualifiers.

His bigger assignment now should be taking Kenya where we belong and that is clinching the One Day International (ODI) status.

Kenya was just a whisker to Test status and Odumbe should know better as he was rubbing shoulders with players from top nations like India, Australia and West Indies among others during his playing days.

Qualifying for the global event in Australia is not enough until he takes us back to playing against top nations.

The ball is in Odumbe’s crease and he must work extra hard to motivate the players and bring out the very best in them.