The Kenyan media has rounded on the country’s players after they stopped training in a dispute over non payment of match fees for the cancelled game against Canada in January. Whereas player strikes were common during the time of the old Kenyan Cricket Association, things have moved on, and the players find themselves attacked for their latest attempts to blackmail the board.

An editorial in The Standard says:-

Players also ought to put patriotism before cash for the national good. While we appreciate that they have families to feed, staging a strike over a match that was not played is regrettable.

In The Nation, Sulubu Tuva looks at the history behind the dispute and concludes:-

It is so sad now that even with the new dispensation in the form of Cricket Kenya led by Samir Inamdar with Tom Tikolo as chief executive, the players are resorting to the same old habits of holding the cricket administrators to ransom.

Will we never learn? Those in cricket need to create trust amongst themselves. These matters are not limited to just Kenya. They are global and will continue to exist. What we need to see is that the players find a more civilised way to deal with these issues.

And on Cricinfo, Martin Williamson adopted a similar line, pointing out that this way of approaching issues will harm the game and the players in the long-term:-

The action by the players ... was at best ill advised, at worst utter stupidity. It sent a message to the wider community that nothing had changed, that Kenyan cricket was still a disorganised and dysfunctional shambles. The reality is quite different, but the damage has been done.

It also seems likely that a few players tried to be smart and used the media to try to force Cricket Kenya's hand. The story was leaked and embellished. What was written up as a sit-in was in reality a planned meeting to discuss the issue. In the end, the only losers are the players themselves. If a sponsor cannot be found then they will be the ones who directly lose out.