Kenya to begin their 2011 World Cup preparations in India
Cricket http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Baroda-c769 from 5-19 January next year.
Kenya will be playing in India in order to familiarise themselves with the sub-continent conditions, as India is one of the co-hosts of the World Cup along with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747. The tournament is scheduled to begin from 19 February.
Kenya’s preparations for the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2011 will be in full swing, as they head to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 (U.A.E). The team will take part in a training camp organised by the ICC in Dubai, which is scheduled to commence
from 28 January, 2011.
The players of the Kenyan squad had earlier worked with South Africa’s legendary fielder Jonty Rhodes in Pretoria, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. The players worked hard in the High Performance Centre with Rhodes, who assisted the players with fielding drills. Rhodes, who
is regarded as one of the best fielders of his time, worked with Kenyan coach Eldine Baptiste at the end of November to help the team in their World Cup preparations.
However, Cricket Kenya’s chief executive Tom Sears hoped that the former batsman would help the team in the training camp in Dubai next month.
“There is no doubt our players have learnt a tremendous amount from him (Rhodes) and his input can make a real difference to our overall performance,” Sears conceded.
The squad came back to Kenya after spending three weeks with Rhodes, and hosted a lacklustre series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Uganda-c3031. Kenya however won the three match series 2-1, but alarmingly slumped to a comprehensive defeat in the dead rubber.
Although Kenya won the first two games of the series, yet the players failed to work as a team, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Collins-c51521 Obuya (106) and Alex Obanda (100) the only saving grace. However Kenya suffered a blow as they wrapped up their calendar year, with a loss in the
last match of the series. Coach Baptiste hoped for a clean sweep, but he was left disappointed, as Kenya’s top order failed to perform with the bat.
However Sears believes that the team is looking forward to next year, and will work hard to shine in the 2011 World Cup. This will be Kenya’s fifth consecutive appearance in the World Cup, after causing a huge upset in their debut appearance in 1996, when
they defeated the West Indies by 73 runs.
Kenya’s skipper Jimmy Kamande told the media that the team will be playing two warm up matches against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 from Dubai.
Cricket Kenya earlier announced the 30-man preliminary World Cup squad, which had eight uncapped players. Most of the players named in the squad are a part of the under-19 team. The squad also rendered the services of two of their most experienced players
in International cricket, Steve Tikolo and Thomas Odoyo. Tikolo and a number of other senior players had rocked Kenyan cricket by initiating a player strike, demanding higher salaries earlier this year. The players indicated that they will not be playing international
cricket, but made themselves available for World Cup 2011 selection.
Kenyan coach Baptiste announced the preliminary squad, and said that Cricket Kenya is encouraged by the fact that while they struggled to name a full squad just four years ago, they now have more young players in Kenya’s A team.
The selectors’ panel will trim down the squad to 15 members, and are likely to announce it by 19 January.
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