ICC threatens to withdraw funding plans to Kenya

Taking a no-nonsense stand, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has threatened to cancel plans to fund cricket in Kenya if the Kenyan Cricket Association (KCA) does not begin league cricket in Nairobi by early July. Internal strife is plaguing Kenyan cricket, with the KCA and the Nairobi Province Cricket Association (NPCA) quarrelling about who should govern club cricket in Nairobi.

Reporting the ICC initiative, the Daily Nation said that the ICC development manager Andrew Eade has called the feuding factions to order. In a letter to the KCA, Eade acknowledged the problems of running club cricket in Nairobi and offered ICC assistance to resolve the dispute. But he also categorically made it clear that squabbles among administrators cannot delay the club cricket programme - an important stepping stone for Kenya's aspirations to get Test status.

The ICC's list of inducements included more funding, more cricket for the national team, more access to the ICC High Performance Manager and a Strategic Plan to chart Kenyan cricket's future. Also thrown in was the prospect of appointing an independent KCA chief executive or general manager to oversee the Strategic Plan.

But these ICC development plans have come under threat with the prolonged KCA versus NPCA dispute. While the Kenya National Sports Council (KNSC) insists that KCA will solely administer the Nairobi league, the NPCA maintains that it will organise the league which it says will start on July 6.