Five-member panel set up to improve cricket in Kenya

A five-member normalisation committee, tasked to ensure smooth running of cricket activities in Kenya, was set up on Wednesday ahead of the Cricket Kenya elections in July.

Kenya had qualified for the 2003 World Cup semi-final, where they lost to India. Since then, however, their cricket has gone downhill mainly due to issues in governance. 

Sports cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed picked a retired judge, Joyce Slouch, to chair the committee alongside another retired judge Alnashir Visram, according to a report in Xinhua.

The committee will set a roadmap for the elections slated for July 7-9 as well as coordinate the finalisation of the federation's draft constitution and ensure its validation in line with the requirements of the Sports Act 2013 and the International Cricket Council (ICC) statutes.

Internal disagreements within Cricket Kenya, culminating in court proceedings, hampered the implementation of the sports registrar guidelines and the court orders of May 2019, prompting the ICC to issue another suspension notice in December 2020.

The committee is set up to ensure Cricket Kenya's smooth running, including team's preparations for local and international events, Amina said in a statement.

Leadership issues have hindered Cricket Kenya's operations over the years and in 2018, International Cricket Council (ICC) issued a suspension notice to Kenya following glaring governance lapses within Cricket Kenya and non-compliance with ICC membership criteria.

Mohamed also disclosed that Cricket Kenya has forfeited a total of 142.7 million shillings (US$1.3 million) in ICC grants in 2019 and 2020 and caused the ICC to withhold a further US$250,000 worth of grants in 2020.