Kenya keen to regain ODI status

Samir Inamdar, the newly elected chairman of the Kenya Cricket Association, has said that one of his priorities will be to ensure that the team gets back its official ODI status. The East African Standard quoted him as saying that he would bring up the issue in a meeting with Ehsan Mani, the ICC president.

"I have received an invitation from the International Cricket Council president Ehsan Mani to [come to] London towards the ICC annual conference and we shall discuss the matter," said Inamdar. "He wants to meet me but this issue will feature prominently because I think there is more to it. We will make a presentation and we hope that we will be given a hearing."

The ICC executive committee had, at its meeting in March 2005, recommended that Kenya be stripped of their ODI status, and Percy Sonn, the ICC vice-president, said that only a formal ratification remained to be done. "Kenya's one-day status is gone. It will be done formally in London during the June 24-25 annual general conference." If this does happen, Kenya will then be demoted to associate-member status and will lose the right to qualify automatically for the 2007 World Cup.

Inamdar, though, was still hopeful that the decision will be reversed. "Tom Tikolo [the chief selector] and I will be fighting to preserve this status as being a necessary stepping-stone for any country, including Kenya, to proceed to Test status."

Meanwhile, Inamdar said that the government had made arrangements to fly in four Kenyan internationals - Steve Tikolo, Collins Obuya, Thomas Odoyo and Hitesh Modi - who have been selected for the ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Namibia in Windhoek from June 2-4. Inamdar also expressed his satisfaction over the government's decision to pay daily allowances to the players for the three-day game. "This is a good gesture by the government, especially the [sports] minister Ochilo Ayacko. We are pleased with the government for according cricket the seriousness it deserves."