Cricket Kenya chief hints at team discord

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Kenya have had a dispiriting World Cup campaign so far © Associated Press Enlarge

Cricket Kenya chief Samir Inamdar has cited differences between the players and coach Eldine Baptiste while criticising the national team's performance at the World Cup thus far. Kenya suffered massive defeats at the hands of New Zealand, who bowled them out for 69, and Pakistan, against whom they went down by 205 runs.

"The coach has his own way of doing things which did not go down well with some senior players," Inamdar told Reuters. "But ultimately, the coach has a duty to do and the players as well have a duty. I hope they will overcome those differences and play well."

Though Kenya's defeats have come against Test-playing nations, their spineless capitulation in each of their two games thus far has not gone down too well with the board. They are in the same group as Zimbabwe and Canada, teams they'll be confident of competing better against, but their game thus far has lacked discipline. Their bowlers conceded 37 wides against Pakistan, while the batsmen have struggled to measure up to both pace and spin.

"The board and I are disappointed by the performance so far," Inamdar said. "I don't mind losing to teams like New Zealand and Pakistan because they are obviously better than us but we should be competitive. We need to be seen to be fighting and scoring runs."

Inamdar said he'd spoken to the players. "We can do better. I have had a long chat with the team management. The chief executive (Tom Sears) returned home yesterday and we had a long chat as well and I expect them to lift themselves up in the remaining matches.

"Obviously, they did not get the basics right. The batting and bowling was not good at all."