Last obstacle preventing Cricket Kenya elections removed

The long-delayed Cricket Kenya elections are now on course to be held by the end of the year after the removal of the last obstacle posed by the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association, which had delayed them taking place over the summer.

The NPCA submitted its list of candidates for the CK board last week, ending months of wrangling over the validity of internal elections. Disgraced former CK CEO Tom Tikolo had won a court order earlier in the year preventing NCPA delegates from representing the association in elections which had originally been due to take place in February.

Tikolo's action prevented most of the country's largest body, NCPA, from participating in the elections. He was then elected the NPCA Chairman last August even though he had been forced to stand down as CK chief executive at the end of 2009 after failing to account for board funds received by him.

An unexpected outcome of the NPCA meeting was that Jackie Janmohamed was picked to stand for the post of CK chairman which is vacant after Samir Inamdar decided not to seek re-election. Janmohamed was a legal advisor for the old Kenyan Cricket Association which was removed from office in 2005.

"We as Nairobi have decided that we want Janmohamed to take over the chairmanship at CK," Tikolo said. "We don't know who Coast and Rift Valley will put up so we expect a big battle. What we are working on is for CK and NPCA work together: I can assure you that we have sorted out all the problems we had since the year started."