‘YouTube Girl’ of Kenyan cricket Abel dreams big with bat, ball

“Anywhere. I don’t need a specific place to train,” quipped Abel.

But it wasn’t always that way. Her love affair with cricket started 14 years ago while she was in Class Five at Kisulisuli Primary School in Nakuru.  Like most beginners, she struggled to grasp the basics of the sport but once she fell in love with the sport, there was no going back.

He latest exploit is helping where she helped Kenya win the September  2 - 8 Africa Regional Division Two trophy in Gaborone, Botswana. At the competition which was a qualifier tournament for 2023 International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup, Kenya beat the hosts by nine wickets.

Afterwards, the national team took a break from training but for the 25-year-old right-hand batswoman and right-arm off break bowler continued training and playing cricket, even if it means doing it alone.

“In cricket, you just need a bat and a ball. I will continue my fitness training and a few things that I can do alone with the bat and ball, so that when I’m called up for national team duties, I don’t have to worry about my weight or any other thing but only playing cricket,”  Abel, who also captains Nakuru Pirates Women’s Cricket Club in the Nairobi Province Cricket Association Division Two League, said.

She has gained an edge over the others by doing a lot of individual training, watching many cricket matches on YouTube, training school pupils in Nakuru and playing against men.

At the Africa Regional Division Two tournament that concluded on September 8, the all-rounder emerged the Most Valuable Player, best batswoman and best bowler. Malawi, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Cameroon and Eswatini also competed in the tournament.

At the tournament, she picked five wickets in Kenya’s 118-run victory over Cameroon in the semi-finals to be crowned Woman of the Match, an honour she also claimed in Kenya’s big wins over Botswana and Lesotho at the group stage of the tournament.

Kenya thrashed Botswana by 111 runs at the group stage, Abel delivering 71 runs from 46 balls, including 12 boundaries. In that same match, she also took four wickets and earned a maiden in four overs, conceding just seven runs in the process. In Kenya’s 208-run victory over Lesotho, the right-hand batswoman hit 109 runs from 52 balls.

Overall, she delivered 238 runs and took a massive 13 wickets in the competition,  becoming one of Kenya’s best female cricketers. She is Kenya’s female cricketer with most T20I runs (1,024)  and wickets (59).

“I was prepared mentally and physically for the tournament because most of the time I work out. I was sure of giving 100 percent,” Abel said of her top performance in Gaborone.

“It is not that the other teams were weak. We just prepared adequately, for the tournament, mentally and physically.”

She gifted Kenya’s opening bowler Lavendah Idambo the best bowler’s gong which she had won, showing selflessness. During the 2022 Rwanda Elite League, Abel emerged the best player in one of the matches in the league but gave her award to a team mate from Nigeria after the Kenyan captain had shone with the bat.

“Whenever I feel that someone else deserves the trophy more than I do, I just give out the award,” she said.

Endurance is an unwritten recipe of the game. It’s an art she learnt in her formative years in the national women’s cricket under-19 team. And, she knows too well the importance of motivating others by appreciating their efforts.

She started playing cricket in Class Five at Kisulisuli Primary School in Nakuru. The sport had then been introduced at that school by Cricket Without Boundaries, a UK-based organisation that spreads cricket through coaching children and teaching adults how to coach.

“The development coaches continued to come to our school and we were really interested in the game. The fact that we could compete with other schools and be awarded trophies made it even more interesting to us,” says the Kenyan international who has been a regular in the team since her maiden call-up in 2012.

She foldly remembers playing for Kenya against top sides Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the qualifiers of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Although Kenya lost by 80 runs to Bangladesh, she got an impressive three wickets in four overs , conceding 14 runs. In Kenya’s nine-wicket loss to Sri Lanka, she top-scored for her team with 33 runs off 53 balls.

“Despite not having the top performance, that was my best. Playing against the best is always a plus for me,” she says of her performance against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

With no strong women’s cricket league in Kenya, the national team plays against men in the NPCA Division Two league. This alongside watching cricket online and coaching pupils in Nakuru, she said has been the secret recipe to maintaining her top status.

“Bowling to men and batting against them is always interesting. If I’m doing better this side (against men), it is obvious that I’m going to perform well in the women's tournament,” she said.

“I have learnt most of my cricket from watching (matches on YouTube) and not from being coached. I do a lot of watching of the game especially men’s cricket because their game is top-notch and if you can play shots that men play, I don’t think there is a place you cannot go.  In Kenya, we are just being taught the basics.”

“I’m always happy to do it (coaching) because it reminds me of the basic things in cricket. Definitely when I do it every day, it cannot get off my mind, which helps me a lot to maintain my performance,” she added, they train at least 20 pupils every day in Nakuru.

Abel suffered a major setback in her career when she was stripped of the captaincy role and suspended from the national team due to indiscipline in December last year during a Women’s Quadrangular Series held at Nairobi Gymkhana involving Kenya, Uganda, Qatar and Tanzania.

Yet, even with her future in cricket remaining uncertain she carried on with training.

“It wasn’t the easiest of the moment for me but it did not pull me down. I think that is one time I was like when I come back I want to make a point that yes I made a mistake but at the end of the day, you should know that mistake do happens, we are all humans,” she said, calling on cricket enthusiast to be patient with her teammates in the national team.

“They are willing to learn and give their best at any particular time so what I’d say is that they still need time, people should not expect so much from them except just let them play their game and not pressure them,” she offers.

Ahead of their participation in the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, Africa Regional Division One qualifiers in Uganda from December 1 to 18, she has advised the team to work on their mindset. Hosts Uganda, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are the other teams that will compete in the Africa Regional Division One qualifiers.

“We are moving forward. The only thing we need to work on is our mindset because everyone is talented and working hard. We need to have a winning mentality the same way when we went to Botswana. They might write us off because we are coming from division two but we are also going to win division one,” she said.

 [email protected]