The government and the International Cricket Council (ICC) have directed the feuding Cricket Kenya board members to resolve their differences internally or risk external intervention.
Ministry of Sports officials, led by Secretary of Administration for Sports Evans Achoki, met with the nine board members on Tuesday.
A day later, Sports CS Salim Mvurya held talks with ICC officials led by the Head of Global Development William Glenwright in Nairobi, with the divisions within the board featuring prominently on the agenda.
Later that evening, the ICC officials also held a separate meeting with the board members: chairman Manoj Patel, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ronald Bukusi, Counties Representative and Acting Treasurer Kennedy Obuya, Director Women’s Cricket Pearlyne Omamo, Development Director Thomas Odoyo, Mary Maina, Beryl Oyugi, Pauline Njeri and Tariq Iqbal.
Sources who attended the meetings have told Nation Sport that ICC stressed on Kenya’s importance in global cricket, stating that they would not allow the sport in the country to collapse due to the wrangles in the Cricket Kenya (CK) board.
A senior Ministry of Sports official, who attended the meetings said both the Ministry, and ICC will formally communicate to CK in writing, outlining clear timelines for implementing the agreed steps in ending the feud. “The Ministry (of Sports) and ICC recommended that the CK exhaust its internal dispute resolution mechanism. They (CK board) have not done that, instead they are just fighting,” said the government official on condition of anonymity.
“We agreed on many steps to resolve the matter. The Ministry (of Sports) and ICC will communicate to the board in writing. We will give deadlines, which if they (CK board) don’t meet, then the government and ICC will definitely come in to help,” added the source.
“We will find a way to bridge the gap until the next elections (in February),” said the board member.
Regarding the high-profile Twenty20 League that has accelerated the division within the board, the Ministry of Sports’ official said the members were told to "agree on the way forward”.
However, another board member said that the matter was under the bridge following the September decision by a majority in the board to cancel the agreement between CK and AOS Sports Tournament. Cricket Kenya and AOS had in April signed a five-year agreement worth Sh255 million for the tournament that was expected to be graced by selected players from Test nations.
However, seven members; Bukusi, Omamo, Odoyo, Maina, Oyugi, Njeri and Tariq opposed the plans on grounds that ICC had not approved the tournament.
On the other hand, Manoj, and Obuya have been pushing to have it proceed as scheduled.
On September 11, the majority of the CK board members announced the termination of the contract with AOS, citing multiple irregularities, including governance breaches and bribery attempts.
This came barely a day after Manoj and Obuya, together with 32 county officials calling themselves the “CK Supreme Council” approved the tournament.
On recommendation by the county officials, that same evening, Manoj sent letters to Bukusi and Odoyo informing them that they had been sent on compulsory leave pending investigations into their alleged gross-misconduct.
While Bukusi and Odoyo have stayed put, saying there is no entity known as “Supreme Council”, the Manoj-led faction has gone ahead and appointed Walter Trenk as interim CEO and 11 board members.
Following the divisions in the CK board, Mvurya had on Thursday last week told Nation Sport that the government will not tolerate financial mismanagement in any federation.
“One of the key areas we have agreed for any federation is that they need to be transparent, accountable and they need also to have a mechanism to resolve governance issues,” he said.
