Tikolo rejects 'blackmail' accusation

The relationship between the Kenyan board (KCA) and the striking players, which has deteriorated all week, grew more hostile when Sharad Ghai, the board's chairman, yesterday accused them of "blackmail".

Today, Steve Tikolo, the former Kenya captain, dismissed Ghai's comments, maintaining that the players were only asking for what was rightfully theirs. "If you fight for your rights, how does it become blackmail?" he told the Nation newspaper. "What is wrong if we ask for job security just like any other human being? All we are asking is that the money owed to us in match fees and bonuses be paid - we have worked for it."

At the centre of the dispute are the contracts offered to many of the players. Most expired at the end of September, and whereas until recently the board has been using ICC money earmarked for development to pay wages, that practice has now ended at the insistence of the ICC. With no team sponsor for almost 18 months, the KCA has little money to honour salaries and so has had to limit itself to offering two-month contracts. "We need job security," Tikolo argued. "We don't need to used for two months and then dumped."

The players feel let down because they have already taken pay cuts as the board's financial predicament has worsened. Tikolo disputed the salary figures given by Ghai, and claimed that in the last 13 months the highest-paid players had been receiving about half of what the board claims to have paid them. They also maintain that they are still owed win bonuses outstanding from the 2003 World Cup, and that there were suggestions that this might be withheld were they to strike.

One other aspect of the walkout is that it has divided the team along racial lines. No Asian players have joined the strike and only one black player - Lameck Onyango - took the field today, but Tikolo said that there were no issues with those who had decided to play against Namibia. "They are our friends," he explained, "and we have played with them for a long time."

That racial split was evident at the Aga Khan Club today where around 30 supporters staged a noisy protest calling for Ghai's resignation. At one stage some Kenyan players were jeered and one onlooker said that he was not watching the full side but Kenya A. He quickly corrected himself: "Kenya Asians, I should say."

It was not as clear where the striking players stood with regard to the new players drafted in to fill their places. Earlier in the week Tikolo said he would be looking into suggestions that some might not be Kenyan passport-holders.

The striking players Josephat Ababu, Joseph Angara, Jimmy Kamande, Alfred Luseno, David Obuya, Thomas Odoyo, Peter Ongondo, Francis Otieno, Kennedy Otieno, Maurice Ouma, Martin Suji, Tony Suji, Steve Tikolo.