Of lawyers and the gentleman's game

Those with little knowledge about the game of cricket will perhaps not appreciate the goings-on of what is termed 'Fifty Over' International Cricket Council World Cup 2015, taking place in Australia and New Zealand. Sadly, Kenya is absent.

To what extent is the fraternity of lawyers responsible for Kenya's rise and fall in the world of cricket?

For the last 15 years or so, the administration of cricket has been spearheaded by lawyers.

First there was Jimmy Rayani, then came Mombasa-based Samir Inamdar, and now the flamboyant 'Jackie' Janmohammed who rocked the world by becoming the first woman to head a national cricket body.

Like the hockey of yesteryears, Kenyan cricket reached its pinnacle in the annals of cricket history in South Africa in 2003, by defeating the world's best teams. It crashed out at the semi-finals. Thereafter it went into a downhill spiral.

All this when Kenya was nearly the 12th nation to be playing test match cricket.

Even nations like Afghanistan and Scotland are playing in the 2015 World Cup.

The national team, writes Martin Williamson, a cricket commentator, is "a mess both on and off the field and domestic structure in the country remains poor".

The general view internationally is that Kenya, which less than a decade ago was touted as the likely test country, is finished.

Whether Rayani and Inamdar were successful or they failed depends on which side of the cricketing fraternity you are on, but the reality is that in the era of lawyer leaders, Kenyan cricket reached the top and then fell to its lowest ebb.

The game of cricket was brought to Kenya in about 1880 and first played in and around the "Chini Club" in Mombasa, somewhere near Fort Jesus.

The first match of note in Kenya was played between the East African Protectorate and rest of the world in December 1899.

From 1910, Officials vs Settlers played the game, and thereafter annual matches between Asians and Europeans was a common feature.

To the uninitiated, this game is incomprehensible.

Twenty-two players play it sometimes for five days, go for a drinks break, lunch and tea comprising, as of necessity, cucumber sandwiches and scones, and the result after five days of play, more often than not, is a draw.

 

There are now three international formats, the five-day test matches, the 50-over and 20-over set ups.

To explain the laws of the game and how it is played is near impossible. Cricket, suffice it to say, is very, very big business in the world.

Cricket in India is a billion-dollar affair, with official estimates of lawful and unlawful generation of monies exceeding 100 times the annual GDP of Kenya in one year. Last week, over 2.5 billion people all over the world watched the India vs Pakistan encounter.

Cricket terminology is mind-boggling. You have "boundaries", "mid-offs", "mid-on", "legs byes" or even "leg before wicket", "no balls", "spin", "doosra"... and volumes upon volumes are written on cricket laws controlled from the headquarters in London by the Melbourne Cricket Club.

It is difficult to define terms such as "bouncers", "wide balls" or "slips"!

The most famous cricketer in the legal fraternity must be EW Nowrojee, father of Pheroze Nowrojee who captained the Asians from 1933-1939.

Pheroze played club cricket in the '50s. I remember the late Reg Samson of Roy and MacDougall Advocates and later Archer & Wilcock, and one-time partner of Justice PJ Ransley being a devout cricketer and a member of the Wanderers Club.

Salim Dhanji and Hamza Jiwaji of Mombasa also played at club level. I too, played for the Rift Valley Sports Club and was a founding member of the Rift Valley Cricket Association.

Suresh Joshi of the Kathiwar Club and a paralegal with the firm of Hamilton Harrison and Mathews made it to the Kenyan team in the 1970s.

One-time principal of the Kenya School of Law, Tudor Jackson, was an umpire and also dabbled in Kenyan cricket politics.

Believe it or not, Kenya has a women's cricket team, the under-17 team and under-13 team, and recently, the Maasai community started playing cricket in Narok. Those were headline-catching scenes - Maasai men playing cricket in their traditional regalia; wow!

In 2011, there was a massive cricket corruption match-fixing scandal involving some Pakistani players and the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board Chairman, Sharad Rao, was one of the judges in the International Cricket Council Tribunal where the Pakistanis were convicted and banned for terms ranging between five and 10 years.

The Sports Act 2013 now governs all sports activities in the country, with the Sports Registrar playing a supervisory role in the management of sports.

The revival of cricket and cricket tourism could boost Kenya's economy and the application and manifestation of new sporting laws must be directed to cricket.

Jackie Janmohammed must resurrect Kenyan cricket and also the reputation of lawyer administrators, and hopefully raise the gender flag to new international limits.

Perhaps she should borrow a leaf or two from other lawyers – like Omolo Rachier of the Gor Mahia fame and Mwaniki Gachoka who ably led the Kenya Golf Union.