Tikolo hits out at the ICC

Steve Tikolo, the captain of the Kenyan team, slammed the ICC for the fact that Kenya have played virtually no international cricket since their semi-final appearance at the 2003 World Cup. "Most of us are really disappointed. After our World Cup performance we have hardly played any games," said Tikolo ahead of Kenya's first match of the Champions Trophy, against India. "Going 18 months without a single one-dayer makes us feel disappointed. We are not getting any respect."

When asked who he blamed for this, the reply came straight back with no hesitation: "Obviously the ICC, because they're the custodians of the game all over the world. All we had was a series against Pakistan A and India A. That's all that we had." Kenya last played a one-day international against Pakistan at Sharjah in April 2003.

At no point during the press conference did an obviously disheartened Tikolo mince his words. "If you have one-day status and don't play any ODIs then the status is as good as useless. We need to play more games. We'd like to see more teams coming to Kenya. Triangulars are going on, but Kenya aren't being invited." He explained that playing top-flight cricket was critical to Kenya's cricket future. "Without games you only go backwards. You need to play against the best to keep pace. Kenya's future doesn't look good."

Tikolo was also not particularly happy about the ICC's claim to be working hard to globalise the game. "They are talking about globalisation of the game, but what they are doing with Kenya doesn't point to that," he said. But he thought the idea was still plausible: "It is possible to globalise the game. Look what football and rugby have done. I don't see any difference in cricket."

But the lack of matches wasn't the only bone Tikolo had to pick with the ICC. Their handling of the Maurice Odumbe affair has also not gone down too well. "Some players were mentioned by Maurice's ex-wife, but I don't think there was any substance to it. No investigations were done to prove this. And I think, on the ICC's part, to let Catherine allege that some of the players were involved was very disappointing."

But despite all this turmoil, Tikolo insisted that his team was upbeat and looking forward to their matches in the tournament. "We're looking forward to the game. It is a big one. Every team is going to come hard at Kenya after the performance in the World Cup. We are focused and we just need to concentrate on our game rather than think about the opposition. We need to play to the best of our abilities. We need to play cricket as it is played."

And what's more, he does not believe that the games are lost before they begin: "Anything can happen on a given day. We can beat them."

If they do pull off a stunning upset - either against India or Pakistan - you can be sure the old whispers about the game being fixed will do the rounds. That angers Tikolo. "It is really disappointing when that happens. We gain respect only if we beat other teams. And for people to insinuate that these matches were fixed really hurts."

For the moment, though, it's time for Kenya to put all that away, and concentrate on their first game against India.