Kenyan cricket - and football too - need new thinking and not just veterans or fresh blood

Kenya Cricket Association division one tournament, Mombasa. October 1980. [File, Standard]

Those who follow Kenyan cricket must know that it is currently being run by a normalisation committee formed by the Sports ministry. This is akin to what was done to football the other day when the federation that was killing football was replaced by a caretaker committee.

Since that caretaker committee was formed, Kenyans who are stuck in the past have been wailing that it was not well constituted. That is neither here nor there, for, nothing can be worse than the footballing office that was disbanded.

Like in football, the Cricket Kenya normalisation committee has a mandate, and a time frame within which to complete its tasks. So far, it has not held elections but has delivered a new constitution.

While some football fans and former officials who are stuck in 1960s and 1970s football management style are crying that the caretaker team is not well constituted, cricket fans are generally happy that the normalisation committee does not have former officials or former cricketers.

Had they been included, they would have derailed the work of the committee, thus, it was okay to bring in fresh minds without selfish interests. Even then, there are lone voices crying that the committee needs to leave ‘their’ cricket alone. These voices in the wilderness where they are stuck with archaic ideas are responsible for the mess that prompted the Sports ministry to step in.

Some of them will probably seek elective posts to run cricket. It is an open secret that if they win, cricket will go back to its deathbed because they have unfinished scores to settle and will concentrate on those.

Inasmuch as they are veterans of Kenyan cricket and were good cricketers, modern cricket does not need their attitude. What Kenyan cricket - and football - need is not just fresh blood, but new thinking, and the cricket veterans lack that. As such, they are not fit to hold any managerial positions in Cricket Kenya.