September 12 2008

Kenya's cricket officials have declared a 13-man team for the upcoming cricket series. It is the four-day match series which would be played against Pakistan Academy. The statement was given by Cricket Kenya on Friday. Three players which include Brothers Collins and David Obuya along with Ragheb Aga have been kept out of the team which visited Europe.

Collins and David are considered as the more experienced players from Kenyan side. But in the previous series they did not performed very well. Collins participated in the solitary Twenty20 match. But David failed to make use of some of the offerings given to him. Aga's omission shows that he is yet to participate in domestic cricket in Kenya since 2004.

That was a controversial issue when he joined the squad in Europe. In 2007, Aga went to the UK for study purpose. He gained a British passport then. The authorities offered him a one-year contract with Sussex at that time. The Pakistan team reached in the country on Wednesday. They started their training sessions at Ruaraka Sports Club.

Kenya and Pakistan will encounter each other in a second four-day match. This will be played in Mombasa from Friday next week. The four day match series will be followed by three One Day international matches. They will be played on Sept. 25, 27 and 28, at venues of Mombasa and Nairobi respectively. Two matches will be played at Nairobi.

Kenya will have to make huge positive change after a disappointing performance in Europe. In that tour, they definitely not played up to their standard. This could lead to their disqualification for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. That tour was strongly affected by the bad weather conditions. That terrible weather hit Europe over the last two months.

The side has been named even. Cricket Kenya is planning to launch an inquiry into their European tour. There were reports of disciplinary problems to go along with a run of poor results. Kenya's match against the Pakistan Academy begins on Saturday. It will be held at the Nairobi Gymkhana. Kenya named team: Steve Tikolo (captain), Thomas Odoyo (vice-captain), Kennedy Otieno (wk), Alex Obanda, Rakep Patel, Maurice Ouma (wk), Jimmy Kamande, Hiren Varaiya, Peter Ongondo, Elijah Otieno, Alfred Luseno, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Tony Suji.