By Oscar Pilipili
Kenya head coach Eldine Baptiste has another chance to gauge the strength of his boys when he leads the national team to four-match one day international series against United Arabs Emirates (UAE) starting in Mombasa tomorrow.
Kenya go into series six days after beating Afghanistan 2-1 in a closely-contested three-match one-day series at Nairobi Gymkhana.
James Ngoche spins during the four-day match against Afghanistan. [PHOTO: MARTIN MUKANGU/STANDARD]
Kenyan batting order is expected to maintain good performance that saw them beat Afghanistan by massive eight wickets in their last meeting. Baptiste is likely to utilise upcoming players, who showed tremendous performance, especially in bowling, against Afghanistan.
The bowlers include James Ngoche, Nehemiah Odhiambo and Elijah Otieno, who starred with the ball in their last three four matches, including th four-dayer against Afghanistan.
The youngsters will get support of Thomas Odoyo, Steve Tikolo and Jimmy Kamande, who boast vast experience with both the bat and ball.
The coach is also expected to retain young batsman Alex Obanda in the top order following his glittering performance where he scored unbeaten 77 runs against Afghanistan in the final match.
Baptiste will also bank on David Obuya and younger brother Collins, Seren Waters and captain Kamande for runs.
The batsmen did poorly in their first two ODIs against Afghanistan and they need to up their game to win the faith of fans as they head for 2011 World Cup which begins in February in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The teams play other matches on October 19, 21 and 23. Kenya plans to visit UAE early next year for a series of warm-up one-day fixtures to prepare for the World Cup.
The UAE team arrived in Mombasa on Friday ahead of the first match at Mombasa Sports Club and will be led by Mohammed Tauqir during the eight-day tour.
The teams last met in the ICC World Twent20 qualifying tournament earlier this year when UAE sprung a surprise to win by 15 runs.
Match officials for the above series are: Match Referees — Kutub Gulamabbas, Vipul Patel and Hemant Desai; Umpires — Subhash Modi and Issac Oyieko.
Meanwhile, the ICC has approved the creation of a league-style Test Championship and redrawn the lines of one-day cricket as part of an extensive restructuring of the international game that also includes a reduced 50-over World Cup and an enlarged World Twenty20 event.
The proposals, laid out by the ICC's chief executive committee last month, were approved by the board at its meeting in Dubai on Wednesday.
The Future Tours Programme (FTP) will now comprise a Test league running over four years with the top four teams at the end of each period qualifying for a play-off event.
The first play-off is scheduled for 2013, the same year England are due to host the Ashes, and Lord's is the favoured venue for the final.
A one-day cricket league will also be part of the FTP, starting in April 2011 and running over four years to culminate in the crowning of the first ODI league champion in April 2014.
Source: The Standard | Online Edition
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