NAIROBI, Jan 24: Former Pakistan Test player and coach Mudassar Nazar was named as the acting Kenyan cricket coach to replace Moles on Monday. Mudassar has been serving as the country's cricket Academy development manager.

Meanwhile, a veteran Kenyan cricket player said on Monday he suspected the sport's recent tribulations were the result of an organized plot intended to bring down the national side at a crucial time.

Former skipper Steve Tikolo said the sacking this month of the Kenya Cricket Association (KCA) governing board, the subsequent legal battle over its replacement and the weekend departure of coach Andy Moles for Scotland were part of a plan to hurt the game.

"It was a deliberate conspiracy to bring down Kenyan cricket," he said, recalling that sacked chief of the KCA had at first accepted the decision but then sued to stop it and that Moles had denied interest in the Scotland job.

"It is all one and the same thing," said Tikolo, who led Kenya to their first-ever semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. Tikolo was one of the 12 senior players expelled from the national team last October following a row over new contracts with the KCA but on Monday he was reinstated.

He was part of a side named Monday to start training for the ICC Intercontinental Cup qualifier against Namibia in Windhoek on February 25-27, the first match to be played since the departure of Moles.

Only two weeks ago, Moles, who was named Kenyan coach after the World Cup, had said he would serve out his full two-year contract term and denied reports linking him with Scotland. But on Saturday, he signed with Scotland. Kenya's current captain Hitesh Modi said Moles' strict approach to the game may have had a bad effect on the team's performance during his tenure.

"He insisted on the players adapting to his own style and wanted to have his own way," the veteran left-arm batsman said. "In fact we were even training more than ever before but we were not registering good results." -AFP