Standard continues to rewrite the history book

The Standard’s overtly pro-KCA rhetoric continues unabated in a report on the farewell party thrown for outgoing coach Roger Harper.

Earlier this week we reported how a disturbingly one-sided column praising the old Kenyan Cricket Association came out just when the former KCA chairman Sharad Ghai appears to be on the comeback trail in Nairobi.

But the latest Standard take on history will raise wry smiles and/or anger among those connected to Kenyan cricket in recent years. Referring to the 2005 board elections, Mutwiri Mutuota says:

A few home truths. The old KCA was booted out after intervention by the African Cricket Association which followed several years of bitter infighting. The board was at war with its own players and stakeholders and handed over debts of close to US$500,000. The national side had played two matches in as many years and, at the time of the elections, had been on strike for more than six months. What’s more, the government had intervened a few months earlier in an attempt to oust the old KCA board.

At the time of the change of board no major players “relocated and retired” even though the article tries to suggest they rebelled against the new regime. And as for players, they have had more matches in the last two years than they have ever had, and what’s more they are now on central contracts and being paid what they are worth.

A charitable explanation would be that Mutuota is ignorant of the facts, in which case he should not be writing about them. A more cynical view is that he knows exactly what he is doing.

Cricinfo makes no apology for repeating what happened to Kenyan cricket in recent years. The major national papers, who were so toothless and silent during the worst days of the old KCA, seem determined to rewrite history; when they do, we will keep reminding them of what really took place.