Obuya steers Nookers to super league

Former Kenya opening batsman and wicket-keeper, Kennedy Obuya, has been in splendid form this season.

Obuya steered his team, Nairobi Nookers, to win Division One of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association league with 237 points, thereby booking themselves a place in the super league next season.

Obuya has been the only player contracted by Cricket Kenya to take part in the lower league, which went against CK’s directive that required national team players to take part in the more competitive super-league.

The winners of the super league were the star-studded Swamibapa A, who dislodged their arch-rivals, Kanbis A, from a position they had held for five consecutive years.

The two teams just traded places. Swamibapa players form the bulk of the national squad and have benefitted a lot from the squad’s training under the national team coach five days a week.

Telca who made their debut in super-league this season, finished in third place behind Kanbis. Like the Nairobi Nookers, Telca also appears to have benefitted from the former national team captain, Maurice Odumbe, who joined them mid-stream at the end of his five-year ban by the International Cricket Council in August. Although Odumbe failed to impress with the bat, he was at his best with the ball.

Finished at the bottom

Odumbe and Thomas Odoyo were the only senior players in the side full of promising young players most of whom are under 20.

As Nairobi Nookers celebrate their promotion to the super-league, Simba Union must be mourning their demotion to Division One after finishing at the bottom of the league table.

Other teams that have earned promotion are Stray Lions B from Division Two to One, and Parklands who were the Division Three champions.

The league ended on Sunday to give way to a 40 overs game set to kick off this weekend. Elsewhere, all-rounder Shane Watson and fast bowler Mitchell Johnson will skip Australia’s final one-day international against India on Wednesday and head home instead.

World champions Australia clinched the seven-match series on Sunday by taking a 4-2 lead with a six-wicket win.

Cricket Australia said in a statement on Tuesday that Johnson and Watson were leaving India as they continue to have their workload managed ahead of the upcoming Australian summer.