Kenyan Cricket - the rise in the early millennium and the steep fall

The Kenyans sprung a surprise in 2003 when they reached the semifinals of the world cup held in South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Led by the able Steve Tikolo who has more than 3500 runs and 94 wickets to his credit, the dark horses of the world cup ultimately lost to India led by a marauding Sourav Ganguly. In the process, they stunned Sri Lanka, who eventually lost to Australia in the other semi final.

Initially Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania combined together and formed the East Africa cricket team - incidentally it was the only team India could manage to defeat before the 1983 world cup. Kenya became an independent associate member of the ICC in 1981. Playing in their first one day world cup in 1996, Kenya defeated the West Indies by 73 runs. Skipper Maurice Odumbe led from the front with a mesmerizing spell of 10-3-15-3.

Playing in a triangular series with India and Bangladesh in 1998, Kenya reached the final defeating even India in one of the games. Ravindu Shah, arguably Kenya's best opener with a compact technique made his debut in the series and was the top scorer with 213 runs. Steve Tikolo, Odumbe, Kennedy Otieno and Hitesh Modi made significant contributions.

These names became familiar house-hold ones after the 1999 world cup though Kenya made little impact - in fact they were the only team to end the tournament winless. They could only draw solace from half centuries by Alpesh Vadher, Tikolo, Otieno, Ravi Shah and Odumbe. In 2000, they hosted the ICC Knockout trophy and were knocked out first. All the matches were played at the Nairobi Gymkhana and the tournament involving all the 10 test playing nations was largely successful though problems related to security were reported. Kenya remained winless in the next ICC event- the champions trophy in 2002 while they defeated India once in the triangular series in South Africa in 2001.

In the 2003 world cup, they began in typical fashion, succumbing to neighbors South Africa. This was followed by a win against Canada, a walkover by New Zealand and victories against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and a loss to West Indies. They finished second in the group and advanced to the super sixes. Kenya earned a semi final spot by virtue of a win against Zimbabwe coupled with the "carry forward" points system and were outplayed by India in the semi finals eventually.

But Kenyan cricket discovered various heroes in the process - Collins Obuya's wizardry shocked Sri Lanka who was shot out for 157 chasing 210 - a commendable achievement against a batting line up boasting of Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardena, Hashan Tillakaratne and Kumar Sangakkara. The Suji brothers, Martin and Tony were consistent with the ball while Maurice Odumbe, Ravi Shah and Tikolo scored more than 200 runs each in the tournament. Thomas Odoyo still reckoned as the best fast bowling allrounder Kenya has produced, contributed in all capacities and also destroyed the Indian top order in the super six game bowling under the lights. The aging and wily Asif Karim bowled a miserly spell of 8.2-6-7-3 against Australia albeit in a losing cause.

Post this tournament, Kenya could not match their success again and rifts between the board and the players on contractual issues slowed Kenya down in their climb towards the next level in international cricket. They even lost the ODI status. Names like Steve Tikolo, Thomas Odoyo, Ravi Shah, Maurice Odumbe, the Obuya and Suji brothers should inspire the new generations of cricketers to regain the same and move forward.