Retired judge Joyce Aluoch to head Cricket Normalization Committee

Retired judge Joyce Aluoch will head a five-member Cricket Normalization Committee appointed by Cabinet Secretary for Sports CS Amina Mohamed.

The five-member committee also has Alnashir Visram who will deputize Aluoch. Others are  Jane Muigai-Kampuis, Morris Aluanga and Walter Ongeti . They will work hand in hand with the Secretariat Committee members that include; Jaxon Indakwa, Rizpha Mukonyo, Mercy Oiro and Caroline Kariuki.

The Committee has been mandated to ensure the smooth running of Cricket Kenya including team preparations for all events and importantly facilitate the elections of new officials and hand over Cricket Kenya to newly elected officials after a successful election under a validated constitution.

“Nothing is going to be lost. In fact I think we are at a better place today than we were yesterday when we had no office bearers, no access to resources because any that are here have been locked in an account and no money coming from the ICC because again that was all suspended but today we are in a better place because we have a normalization committee in place,” said Amina.

The Aluoch led  committee is also supposed to recommend to the Cabinet Secretary long-lasting solutions to the problems facing the federation to make sure it does not return to squabbles.

In the late 1990s Kenya was ranked among the best countries in cricket globally after joining the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1981 as an Associate Member before qualifying for the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup after finishing second in the 1994 ICC Trophy.

Between 1996 and 2007 Kenya beat cricket giants West-Indies, Canada, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe becoming a more respected cricket nation only to start witnessing governance problems that affected the teams performance and general growth of the sports in the country.

In July 2018, ICC issued a suspension notice to Cricket Kenya following  governance lapses and non-compliance with ICC Membership criteria.

Wrangles continued within Cricket Kenya culminating in court proceedings hampering the implementation of the guidelines provided by the sports registrar prompting the ICC to issue another suspension notice in December 2020.

Due to non-compliance, Cricket Kenya has forfeited a total of $1.3 million in ICC grants between 2019 and 2020 and caused the ICC to withhold a further $250,000 worth of grants in 2020.

This unfortunate leadership crisis within Cricket Kenya risks having Kenya expelled from the ICC membership and losing any right to participate in future ICC events including the 2022 Commonwealth Games Qualifiers.