Kenyan cricket squad arrives amid tight security

Published December 11, 2014
Members of Kenyan cricket team attend a training session at the Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday.—M. Arif/White Star
Members of Kenyan cricket team attend a training session at the Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday.—M. Arif/White Star

LAHORE: An 18-member Kenyan cricket squad arrived here amid tight security to play five one-day games against Pakistan ‘A’, which commences from Saturday.

All the matches will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium here.

The series holds a lot of significance, both for Pakistan and Kenyan cricket.

While the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) pins hopes on such series to make a case for return of international cricket in the country and convince the Test playing nations to resume their tours without any fear of security, the Kenyan cricket is taking the series as an opportunity to prepare its team for the World League qualifying round Division-II to be held in Namibia in January 2015.

They are currently facing a great decline in the standard of their game after achieving a milestone in 2003 World Cup when they surprised everyone to qualify for the semifinals against the West Indies.

Pakistan became a ‘no go area’ for the foreign teams since that harrowing terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March 2009. Though the Afghanistan cricket team had also visited Pakistan early this year, the PCB is giving more importance to this series against Kenya as theirs is the first team to tour Pakistan from outside Asia.

A presidential level security has been provided to the Kenyan team while the entire Gaddafi Stadium has been cordoned off with security personnel all around. Both the main gates of the Nishtar Sports Complex, where the stadium is located, remained closed even after the Kenyan team had finished its practice session on Wednesday afternoon and reached their accommodation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) adjacent to the stadium.

All the food restaurants in the vicinity will also remain closed till the departure of the visiting team on Dec 21. The PCB has not issued any statement to explain how the spectators will get their access to the Gaddafi Stadium to watch the matches.

Meanwhile, Kenyan coach Steve Tikolo, a former international cricketer who visited Pakistan twice in the past as a player, said at a press conference here that Pakistan has done a favour to Kenya by hosting them for the series and it is a great honour to be here.

“Pakistan is a big country in the world of cricket and we are honoured and favoured by PCB for giving us this series as it will help my boys to get necessary experience before playing the World League next month in Namibia,” Tikolo said.

“I rate Pakistan ‘A’ team as a strong outfit as it has experienced players like Fawad Alam (captain) and Anwar Ali (paceman). But we also have a mixture of experience and youth in our team,” he said. “We have five youngsters and two are making debut in international cricket,” he said.

Tikolo said his team could play matches anywhere in Pakistan because the cricketers just wanted to play cricket and forget other things. About any security concerns, Tikolo said it was a matter to be dealt with by the two cricket boards.

“Obviously, our team is here because our cricket board is satisfied, our focus is on to play good cricket and we are not worried about the security as hosts are taking all kind of care,” he said.

Tikolo also said that Pakistan was an important cricket country and it was sad international cricket was not happening here.

“We are also glad our tour will help Pakistan to convince other countries to restart visiting here,” he said.

Kenyan skipper Shem Ngoche said he was expecting good and positive cricket in the coming days and the factor of win or defeat is not of much importance here.

The 18-member Kenyan squad comprises 15 players and three officials.

Squads:

Kenya: Shem Ngoche (captain), Morris Ouma, James Ngoche, Alex Obanda, Ken Owino, Nelson Odhiambo, Emmanuel Ringera, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Gurdeep Singh, Elijah Otieno, Eugine ochieng, Lucas Olouch, Jedavji Bhimji, Hamza Malik, Jimmy Kamande.

Officials: Joseph Asichi (manager); Steve Tikolo (coach); Joseph Mutisya (physio).

Pakistan ‘A’: Fawad Alam (captain), Sami Aslam, Sharjeel Khan, Fazal Subhan, Babar Azam, Saad Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Mohammad Rizwan, Anwar Ali, Hammad Azam, Imran Khan, Mohammad Talha, Ehsan Adil, Raza Hasan, Shahzeb Ahmed.

Officials: Javed Arshad Khan (manager); Mansoor Rana (coach); Yasir Malik (trainer); Zubair Ahmed (analyst);
Mohammad Tayyab (physio).

Schedule of matches:

Dec 13: 1st one-dayer

Dec 15: 2nd one-dayer

Dec 16: 3rd one-dayer

Dec 18; 4th one-dayer

Dec 20: 5th one-dayer

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2014

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