Ambitious Kenyans eager to get back on track
Bermuda may have ambitious plans for World Cup preparation but Steve Tikolo?s men have just one, far more lofty, goal on their minds ? being full-time again.
The Kenyans have played full-time cricket for some years now and although they are temporarily without contracts, they expect to sign new deals soon.
?When I wake up in the morning I want to go to a cricket field like you go to the office,? said Tikolo, revealing the enormity in the gulf between cricketing expectations in Hamilton and Nairobi.
?We had been full-time but we have a new Board now and we don?t yet have contracts. We have decided to give them a bit more time but we are hoping to get some sponsorship so we can sort that out again.
?We are still owed some more money from our World Cup success in 2003 but we are all together again as a team now and we are playing good cricket.?
Ominously for Bermuda, that good cricket included comprehensive victories over a Zimbabwe team disguised as an ?A? side.
?It was a good tour for us,? said the powerful but mild-mannered Kenyan legend after arriving at the tournament hotel yesterday following a 12-hour plane ride from Zimbabwe via Johannesburg.
?We thought we were playing the ?A? team but it was a plus for us to be playing against a team which had seven or eight Test players in it.
?I was very happy with the way we played, we got some very good results. It was an important warm-up for us before this tournament and we have come here feeling very good.?
Tikolo, 34, is one of four players left over from the 1994 game against Bermuda from when he remembers the name Clay Smith, but little more about that game or tomorrow?s opponents.
?It was a long time ago, I don?t remember much and I certainly don?t think the game here is going to be very similar,? he continued.
?We have changed a lot and I?m sure they have as well. It will be a very different game.
?We don?t know that much about Bermuda but we know that if they are good enough to qualify for the World Cup, then they must be a good team.?
Kenya at full strength are knocking firmly on the door of Test cricket ? as the recently-defeated Zimbabwe will know all too well ? and are firm favourites not just to win tomorrow but to take the whole Intercontinental tournament.
Despite their internal wranglings, they are still regarded as a powerhouse in the second tier Associate member world and victory in Namibia is very much on their minds.
?We have come here to win this tournament, that is very true,? he added.
?But we are taking nothing for granted. We are not going to be complacent against any side, it is all about doing our job well and concentrating on our own game.?
And for Bermuda it is all about stopping the heartbeat of the Kenyan team.
?He is their rock,? said Bermuda?s skipper Smith of Tikolo.
?He is the man that is the centre of everything good that Kenya do. So we have to stop him and we will do what we can to achieve that.
?It is a case of when he comes in, targeting him with our best bowling and putting him under pressure from ball one.
?The top players often don?t like that and we will go after him.?