Cricket: Kenya Cricket recovers after squabble between players and board officials, look forward to ICC World Cricket League Division One
The stand-off between Kenyan players and the Kenyan Cricket Board ended when the country’s Sports Ministry intervened into the matter. Now Cricket Kenya (CK) will send a full-strength team to the ICC World Cricket League Division One tournament scheduled in Netherlands.
Kenya Cricket was thrown into turmoil when a contractual dispute between the players and the board forced them to abandon a short tour to England on the eve of the trip. The players refused to travel until and unless the board sanctions their revised terms of their central contract. The players were also demanding removal of their chief selector. The tension between the cricketers and the management had thrown Kenya's arrangements for the World Cricket League Division One tournament in Holland into turmoil.
The tour to Rochdale, Lancashire was a warm-up for the upcoming World Cricket League Division One tournament in Netherlands, and the decision of players was communicated to the board at the eleventh hour.
The international cricket council, on Monday, gave Cricket Kenya 24 hours deadline to either send its team to the Division One event in Netherlands or risk exclusion from the tournament, a deferral of its endowments along with severe fines. The ICC warned that if the board fails to deliver on its commitments, then it might be in violation of its responsibilities to its commercial allies. All this would lead to suspension of funding that Cricket Kenya is getting and might get some additional penalties.
If that would have happened then Cricket Kenya would not have been able to pay for the existing central contracts, leaving the players - who are asking for a revised contract with more money - without a job.
The board had taken a look at the contingency of sending its second-string squad but that did not work because of visa complications.
Representatives of the Ministry of Sports met with senior board officials and the players. It was revealed that the Ministry representatives have made it clear to the players that any of their contractual concerns would be entertained only if they had fulfilled their international commitments.
It was revealed by Maurice Ouma to local media that the least-paid cricketer was getting some US$4 per day. However, the documents show that in 2009, the board was paying about $700 per month to its lowest centrally-contracted player. The figure revealed by Maurice Ouma was for informal non-contracted players who turn up for practice matches and other events on daily basis.
Kenyan cricket players are already well paid, with senior cricketers getting about $1500 per month, almost ten times the average income in Kenya, while the juniors are earning around $800 as per central contract.
The central contract of the 16-man national squad expired at the end of last month. It was anticipated that the contract would be revised without any complexity. The board, despite the continuous poor on-field showings of the team, was ready to offer a 10 percent pay raise to its players. But, a four-man delegation that claimed to be representative of the team met with Cricket Kenya officials last week, and demanded some revised terms in the contract which were deemed deplorable. The demands included regressing to a number of previous terms of revision which had been set aside some years back after CK, African Cricket Association and International Cricket Council decided they stifled new cricketers. All this has left Cricket Kenya around $50,000 out of pocket.
Maurice Ouma, who will lead the Kenyan side in the ICC World Cricket League Division One tournament, was leading the protest against the board. Consequently his position as captain during the tournament has become untenable.
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