Cricket Kenya recently announced the “new identity” of their cricket. The identity is a new logo which they termed as “contagious.” Given the country’s record of battling with epidemic diseases, the word contagious does not seem appropriate. Yet the new
logo is the beginning of a new era for the country’s failing cricket structure.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s cricket downfall has been attributed by corrupt politicians and power in the management, failure to cash in the domestic potential coupled by unfortunate security problems faced by the country. Kenya has been faced by similar woes since 1996.
Comparing both the countries might not be right yet the similarities between their subsequent downfalls underline the same fact- something needs to be done.
Cricket Kenya in a bid to do something unveiled the new logo. Tom Sears, the chief executive of Cricket Kenya said that it reflected “a new era for the sport in the country.”
The new logo shows a close up shot of a lion’s face in red, black, and green colours. Sears gave the responsibility to an Indian based company that did a “brilliant job in retaining the true heritage and core elements of the previous logo.”
So the logo is changed and the next step is to make new uniforms for the men’s and women’s cricket team.
Cricket Kenya is slowly and steadily moving towards a change. They are nurturing their cricketing potential as a brand so that they could get enough sponsors for funding them in future.
Kenya is not a small country but given their rough history of corrupt governments coupled with natural calamities, businesses in Kenya are still in the rebuilding stage.
Kenya is located in Eastern Africa placed in between Somalia and Tanzania as it borders with the Indian Ocean. It is smaller in area than Pakistan but twice the size of Nevada. It has a varying weather which swings in between tropical breezes to arid conditions.
Kenya has a long history of struggle against oppressive rulers to fight for independence. Since independence in 1963, Kenya has been working forward to counter all the after-effects of independence. The infrastructure needed to be built, the economic problems
and amidst corruption woes, Kenya moved forward.
In between the struggle, the English colonial settlers had introduced the gentleman’s sport of cricket among Kenyan youngsters. The British played the first official game in Mombassa which is the largest city of Kenya. The Kenyan players got so intrigued
with the game; they used tree trunks to bat. Banana skins were tied together to make stumps for the match.
Before independence, Kenya played their first international match against Tanzania and then toured Uganda. The touring teams had inter-racial players as they also travelled to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in 1958.
Amidst the Kenyan development woes, the team joined together with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Uganda-c3031 to form a single squad known as the East Africa cricket team which quickly became an Associate member of International Cricket Council. The East Africa nations played amongst
themselves with domestic competitions and a “quadrangular cricket tournament” which also included http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zambia-c3043. This tournament was held annually from 1966 till 1980.
International cricket was the next agenda for the African nations as they toured England in 1972. They also played limited-over games with county clubs of England. Kenya however parted ways in 1981 as they were considered to be the strongest part of the
East Africa team. They took part in the ICC Trophy in 1982, 1986, and 1990. They also won the right to host the 1994 ICC Trophy in Nairobi with Kenya reaching the finals to qualify for cricket’s prestigious title, 1996 World Cup. Kenya staged the biggest upset
of that time as they defeated http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 by 73 runs.
Following the successful international performances, Kenya gained the full status in One Day by the ICC. Kenya soon got encouraging response from the international cricket boards and Kenya was soon rolling in international tours left, right, and centre.
However, Kenya’s cricket and the country were soon to be hit by a crisis they could not avert.
Throughout 1997 and 1998, Kenya was hit by natural disasters. Continuous flooding destroyed the communication infrastructure with roads uprooted and poverty hitting all time low. The subsequent years brought ever larger problems for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752 as malaria and
cholera epidemic spread far and beyond the country.
If the natural causes were not enough, the internal clashes between different sects hampered the country’s progress. The violent ethnical clashes were followed by terrorist bombings in the end of 1998. Poverty, disease, corruption, security lapses, violence
were the things that enveloped the country.
To be continued…
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