Cricket Kenya to review World Cup debacle

Cricket Kenya has announced a comprehensive review of the team's disastrous World Cup campaign, where they lost all their six league games to bow out before the knockouts. The review will take in every aspect of the squad's preparation and performance at the event and will be conducted by board officials and chief executive Tom Sears, with assistance from the ICC.

Since beating Canada in their opening match of the 2007 World Cup, Kenya have lost 14 successive 50-over matches in major tournaments (World Cups and the ICC World Cricket League Division One). They were one of only two teams to end the World Cup winless, a huge fall from grace for a team that reached the semi-finals of the 2003 tournament, and used to be one of the leading Associates. The lowest point of their campaign was the defeat against a Canadian outfit comprised of semi-professional expats.

"Clearly our performances at the World Cup have been completely unacceptable and a radical overhaul of our national squad is necessary," Sears said. "The team was comprehensively beaten in all six matches and aside from one creditable performance against Australia, the displays we saw were simply not good enough.

	Tom Sears said Kenya's World Cup debacle "cannot be tolerated" © AFP Enlarge

"An enormous amount of time, money and resources have been invested into the squad, and our most experienced player Steve Tikolo stated this was the best preparation any Kenyan squad had enjoyed prior to the World Cup. There has been no return on that investment which amounts to well over $700,000 in the last 12 months and clearly this cannot be tolerated. We will look at every facet of our national team structure and composition and make recommendations on all areas we feel where change is necessary. I anticipate these will be widespread across all areas of the game."

The review will include detailed reports from key personnel including team coach Eldine Baptiste, captain Jimmy Kamande, the team manager, and board member John Moyi, who travelled with the squad. Additionally, members of the team management and players will be interviewed in depth. The review will be finalised by May, following which recommendations on changes will be put to the board.