13-year-old Cricket Kenya to be dissolved by Government

What's the story?

After much speculation from the 1st of April, the Ministry of Sports and Heritage has decided to dissolve Cricket Kenya, the governing body of the sport in the country. Reports suggest that the board was dissolved yesterday. A new constitution is to be drafted after holding fresh elections within the following three months but until then, an interim committee will be in place to take the game forward.

The nine-member interim government is believed to consist of former Vice Chairman Harpal Singh Sehmi, treasurer Ravi Kaul, and Rajesh Patel from the previous board, three members from the 'stakeholders group' - David Obuya, Edward Odumbe, and Tom Tikolo, and three representatives from the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association - Sukhban Singh, Omole Asiko, and Walter Trenkof.

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The board was experiencing a lot of turbulence after Kenya's dismal performance at World Cricket League Division 2 in February and moving down to tier 3 in Associates Cricket. Following that, the Board Chair, Development Secretary, head coach and national captain, all resigned within days of each other.

The heart of the matter

A senior officer at the Ministry of Sports told Xinhua that Rashid Echesa, the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, will indeed dissolve the association on Wednesday and what followed indeed made the speculation true.

A committee of former players and administrators believed that Cricket Kenya's current constitution failed to comply with the Kenyan law. They obstructed the fresh elections that were to be held last week.

They contested the ICC and newly-appointed Sports Minister Rashid Echesa to stop the elections and launch an investigation into the boards' alleged incompetence and misappropriation of funds. They also urged the Sports Registrar to inspect the books of the Nairobi Provincial, Rift Valley, Coast, and Central Cricket Associations.

This is the second time that a Sports Minister has dissolved a cricket governing body as Ochillo Ayacko dissolved the former KCA to bring in the now dissolved Cricket Kenya. However, the involvement of ICC still remains unclear. While Echesa mentions that he was in consultation with the ICC for the decision, ICC denies any sort of communication from the Kenyan government.

What's next?

The ICC has been swift to suspend membership under such circumstances. Although, a statement from ICC is awaited and William Glenwright, the Head of Global Development in ICC, is scheduled to visit the country next month.

Author's take

Interference of government with the governing body of cricket is good up to an extent where its aim is to clear the corruption within the system; a scenario prevailing in India for quite some time now.

However, it isn't right to let the body's dissolution affect the development of cricket in a third-tier nation like Kenya. A better administration must guide the once eligible for Test status Kenyan team to better heights.