Baptiste appointed Kenya coach

Former West Indies allrounder Eldine Baptiste has been appointed the coach of Kenya and will be in charge of the team until June 2011.

"Eldine brings to the national team a wealth of cricketing experience having been a national player himself for West Indies and in recent years after retirement from international cricket has held several coaching positions," Cricket Kenya said in a statement.

Baptiste, 49, represented West Indies in 10 Tests and 43 ODIs in 1983-90. He was also the head coach of the Stanford Superstars, who went on to win US$20 million after beating England in the one-off Stanford 20/20 for 20 match last year. He held coaching positions in South Africa with the domestic side Dolphins, and as technical director for Fidentia in Port Elizabeth.

Kenya have a busy year-end calendar ahead - with a tour of Zimbabwe later this month followed by a tour of South Africa in November - and the board hoped that Baptiste would put the team "high on the international stage."

"The contract commences on September 15 and Baptiste's immediate role will be to prepare and train the Kenya national team by defining and setting out the performance programme for the team's training. He will be responsible for all direct coaching and management issues of the team," the board said.

Baptiste was on a five-man shortlist interviewed for the post left vacant after a decision not to extend the contract of Andy Kirsten.