Kenya: Minister And Cricket Association Play True to Form

Clay Muganda

1 May 2011

Nairobi — One of the least expected questions I used to receive from fellow students when I told them I was studying journalism was how I planned to live in Kenya, because then, journalists were considered to be the biggest enemies of the state.

With time, I started expecting that question whenever my line of studies came up, and I came up with a standard, seven-word answer, and if someone asked a follow up question, I used to ramble on about denials and counter-denials being the biggest problems in our land whereby we decide not to see things as they are; we refuse to admit that things are not going on well and we defend even the indefensible.

And so it has come to pass, that the Sports Minister Paul Otuoma, who may not even know where the offices of Cricket Kenya are, has come out guns blazing and, according to reports, fell short of telling the Samir Inamdar-chaired CK Board to quit office over the string of national team’s poor performances including the one at the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Mr Otuoma was very right in calling for that, because everyone knows that things are bad, and they will go straight to worst, if the current office continues with its dithering and board room power plays.

Feeling that the minister was out of order, Mr Inamdar said the minister had little knowledge of the happenings in Kenyan cricket and that the CK Board would like to meet with him and put the record straight.

Mr Inamdar was right in telling him off because everyone knows that the Sports Minister knows very little about the happenings at Cricket Kenya, and chances are so high that he will not know in the near future, either because, in his words, “CK is being governed like private property.”

To make matters clearer, the CK chair put up a paid-up advertisement in weekend papers and said nothing new, save for the sentence that it is “unfortunate, that under these circumstances, the Honourable Minister has chosen to air his ill-advised views publicly and to condemn CK Board without any proper consultation or discussion.”

Of course, it is unfortunate, and, ideally, Mr Inamdar would have liked it if the Minister had aired his ill-advised views in private, because it is a secret that our cricket is at its nadir.

He could have done better if he had consulted with the CK Board to enlighten him and show him, in private, the successful side of Kenyan cricket.

It is yet not clear if the Honourable Minister is also going to buy space and defend his position, or whether he will follow up on Mr Inamdar’s invite and attend the CK/ ICC representatives review meeting that starts on Monday in Nairobi.

But what is clear is that both Mr Otuoma and Mr Inamdar are acting true to form. What is happening is not surprising one bit, it is only that it has taken a little bit longer than we expected.

The sports minister was going to blame CK and, in return, CK was going to issue a denial – while all of us sit back and wait for them to tell us the news.

The back-and-forth between the sports ministry and CK will not end any time soon, and if we want to sit back and watch, we are in for a long show – of denials, poor performance and falling standards. God help Kenya!

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