Cricket Kenya is re-launching national league involving eight top teams drawn from Nairobi, Mombasa and Nakuru. The CK chief executive officer, Tom Sears, on Wednesday said that the league will be played in two formats, 60 and Twenty20 overs.
He said that to make it competitive, all the national players will be evenly spread out and that a number of professional players from the sub-continent will also be brought in.
New league
He also said that all the under-19 players will be featured in the tournament and that they were also approaching Uganda to an aim of getting them to be part of the new league. Sears said that they have had fruitful discussions with Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association whom they are asking to reschedule their league, which has been traditionally played around the same period.
The NPCA league has been the most important event in the country. In the 1990s Kenya’s domestic attracted quality players from India and Pakistan who played a major role in uplifting the standards of the game in the country. Those players included Sandip Patil and Bawilder Singh Balu who were part of the India 1983 World Cup winning.
Historic semi-final
Patil later become the national team coach and he took Kenya to a historic semi final at the 2023 World Cup in South Africa. Sears said that the success of their new event will determine how soon the first class games would be introduced in the country.
Recommendations for introduction of a longer version league have come from may people including former coach, Roger Harper, the late Bob Woolmer, when he was the ICC High Performance manager. With the introduction of the new league format, there will be light at the end of the tunnel for Kenyan cricket. Kenya play their last match at the world cup against Zimbabwe on Sunday.
As for Balu, he introduced a triangular junior event with David Waters, the then NPCA secretary which involved players from Kenya, India and United Kingdom.
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