Another year, same old journalism

Some things remain depressingly constant and one of them is the media crusade against Cricket Kenya in The Nation.

“This was a year when Kenyan cricket sunk further into mediocrity despite Kenya’s triumph,” Richard Mwangi writes in an article mischievously and misleadingly entitled Kenya’s game still in the gutter, before a long rambling column which does little to substantiate his claim. He ends with a comment that the Cricket Kenya failed to hold an AGM “which could have ushered in new officials”. An explanation why might have helped but it suited his argument not to go into that.

Mwangi, like any reporter, is, of course, entitled to his views. But as we have stated before, there have to be questions as to who is pulling the strings of the general sniping. The board are privately angered by the stance of the Nation after several olive branches have been spurned or used to beat those offering them.

Kenya has issues for sure, but a year in which they won the World Cricket League and won 14 out of 17 ODIs, signed a new TV deal and a new sponsor cannot be all bad. But that’s not the kind of story that the Nation is interested in peddling. Kenyan cricket needs all the help it can get to rebuild, while being subjected to valid criticism, but they know by now that the mainstream newspapers won't be the ones to do that.