Kenya Cricket, once the most successful Associate team amongst everyone, has slowly gown down the rankings after their historic semi-final appearance at the 2003 ICC World Cup in South Africa.
The situation became even more grim as neighbours Uganda also managing to beat them in 50 overs cricket in the recent times.
A first-round exit from the recently concluded Africa T20 Cup also didn’t help matters much but a much needed victory in one of their 2 WCL matches against Netherlands have still kept them in the hunt for a top 4 finish, to not only qualify for the World Cup Qualifiers but also get back their ODI status, which they lost in the previously held World Cup Qualifiers.
Senior players Collins Obuya & Rakep Patel have been Kenya’s mainstays in the past couple of seasons and with the ever improving Odhiambo brothers (Nelson and Nehemiah) along with Dhiren Gondaria coming up along the ranks, Kenya Cricket can look forward to better times as were in the past.
Scotland stand in their way though and Hong Kong’s fate depends on their matches against Papua New Guinea, and add to that the hot conditions in UAE, head coach Thomas Odoyo knows that the players have their task cut out ahead of them.
“It is extremely hot in Dubai in the month of December. It will be good for us to play a number of games there as part of our acclimatisation,” Thomas Odoyo told reporters.
Commenting on Kenya’s performance against the Dutch in South Africa last weekend, where the two teams shared points 2-2, Odoyo said: “The boys made a few mistakes which we will rectify in practice sessions.”
“The positive thing is that the players have gained confidence and have learned the process required to win a game instead of taking shortcuts. We will continue working on both mental and technical aspects of the game.”
