All doom and gloom for Kenyan cricket, says former left-arm spinner Aasif Karim

Aasif Karim being given the man-of-the-match for his 3/7 against Australia

Kenyan cricket’s greatest moment till date, without a shadow of doubt, was their unexpected march to the semi-finals of the ICC World Cup in 2003 before bowing out to India, and left-arm spinner Aasif Karim more than played his part in Kenya’s greatest cricketing achievement not just through his wily left-arm spin but also through his imposing presence in the dressing room.

It could have, of course, all been very different for Karim. He, after all, had announced his retirement from cricket four years earlier, in 1999, after captaining Kenya in the previous ICC World Cup in England. But the board requested him to abandon his retirement and return for one final time, and Karim willingly agreed.

The minnows who upset the big guns

His comeback began poorly as he was smashed for 17 runs off two overs by the South Africans in Kenya’s World Cup opener, leading him to be dropped from the remaining group games. But Kenya’s progress to the group stages gave Karim one more opportunity to impress at the world stage. Recalled exactly a month later for their game against Zimbabwe, the then 38-year old conceded just 20 runs from his 9 overs, but little did one know that he was saving his best for none other than the mighty Australians.

Coming up against arguably the greatest side in ODI history, as illustrated by the fact that they went on to win all their games during that World Cup, Karim took an impressive 3/7 from 8.2 overs including 6 maidens while defending a modest target of 174 from 50 overs. His wickets included those of Ricky Ponting and Darren Lehmann, and he went on to win the man-of-the-match award for his stunning display even though he ended up on the losing side.

That World Cup was the culmination of a fantastic 7-year period for Kenyan cricket. Courtesy of their performance in the 1996 World Cup, where they beat West Indies, they were granted ODI status and pulled off several upsets in the following few years including beating India twice. But they haven’t been able to kick on and have, unfortunately, been in the doldrums for the last decade, so much so that they were stripped off their ODI status earlier this year.

Kenyan cricket in strife

The reason for that, according to Karim, is the fact that the development structure and domestic cricket "became weaker as we became stronger internationally".

Talking about Kenya’s continued absence from ICC tournaments in recent years and losing their ODI status, Karim, in an exclusive interview to ESPNcricinfo, said: "I am sure you can feel it in my voice, even now. It is beyond sad and painful.

"It is a great missed opportunity and they should never be forgiven for letting it pass. Whether it is the administration, the players or whoever it is, all stakeholders should never be forgiven for this missed opportunity."

"Kenya cricket is dead," Karim stated. "It is dead and buried. Your intent can be good but if you're not competent to do something, it doesn't happen. We've had an incompetent administration for the last ten years. The results are clear. Where is the cricket now? My prediction is that from being an Associate team having ODI status we will become an Affiliate."

"The first thing I would do is say we are on ground zero," he says. "Number two, I would call all the stakeholders, including the past administration - there were some competent past administrators who did a very good job - and bring the past cricketers in,” he said when asked about what he would to revive the situation.

"We would have a brainstorming session for a week or so to try and see how we could revive it. Then obviously the key would be to go into schools cricket, estate cricket, development cricket, and start again. If those things were done correctly and we had good, competitive cricket, we could bring back the crowd support. That would generate income because you could bring in the corporates. But minimum it would take ten years before any meaningful results could come."