Kenyan board looks increasingly isolated

Brothers on the move: David, Kennedy and Collins Obuya © Getty Images

If evidence were needed of the deepening split between the Kenya Cricket Association and the country's cricket population as a whole, it came on Monday when several leading players changed clubs, delivering a serious blow to the current board's ability to claim to represent the game in Kenya.

Relations between the board and the two main bodies running cricket in Kenya - the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) and the Coast Cricket Association (CCA) - have deteriorated in the last 18 months, with the vast majority of clubs backing the associations. The board stands accused of mismanagement and financial irregularity - charges it denies - but of late it has become increasingly isolated. Last year it tried to establish a rival league to the established ones, but that failed when only three clubs offered their support.

The mass defections came from three clubs. Two of them - Ruaraka and Simba Union - have backed the KCA in the dispute, and withdrew from the main NPCA league. It is believed that the players disagreed with that stance, decided that they needed practice against leading sides, and so moved. The other club, Ngara, suffered the loss of five players because it had insufficient funds to pay them to play. The signs that there was trouble brewing came last weekend when Ruaraka, one of the more prestigious clubs, were unable to raise an XI to play their NPCA league fixture.

And the difficulties facing the KCA grew this week when the CCA unanimously re-elected its existing committee, effectively delivering a clear message to the board that it was ready and willing to continue the fight against them.