SA vs. Kenya and Bangladesh

A lot of people (myself included) have been very critical about the Kenyan and Bangladesh cricket teams touring South Africa. My opinion changed slightly at the 20/20 game at the Wanderers last night...

I'm going to deal with Kenya first because they are earlier in the 'process' than Bangladesh who have had to walk a similar line.

Kenya Let's be honest - Kenya is nowhere at the moment in world cricket. They don't have the firepower or the structures in place to be competitive for probably
the next decade - that's not a nasty assessment - its a brutal fact.

Having said that, we had the opportunity to see a young talented player like Alex Obanda come on to the world scene and reinforce that developing cricket nations like Kenya can and are producing come really great cricketing talent.

I was surfing around the internet this morning looking for some info on Kenyan cricket and was highly surprised to find a dedicated blog to Kenyan cricket. Check them out - they're here at: http://kenyacricket.blogspot.com/

A search on the internet revealed thousands of pages following the development of the sport in the region which I think is hugely important for spreading the game away from the traditional powerhouses.

I think its brilliant that a nation with such a fledgling cricket community!

The trick is to make sure that guys like Obanda get as much as exposure to high levels of first class cricket as possible and build their experience and playing records so that they can put more back into the game domestically.

Bangladesh
Anybody who was at the Wanderers last night will attest to the fact that for every 3 South African fans in the crowd, there must have been 1 Bangladeshi fan. The noise and support for this tiny cricket nation is growing - and it's growing fast!

When Mohammed Ashraful came out to bat and he started dispatching the SA bowlers to all ends of the park in his brief little innings, the Bangladeshi's got excited - they were in the game!

The fans were cheering, the cricket wasn't the best from a 'thinking' perspective, but at the end of the day everybody got full for their money.

I look at a talent like Ashraful and I know that the idea of taking the game to other countries across the world is working.

The guy on merit could probably be competitive in any top 6 batting lineup at the moment.

He needs his head checked every now and then to stop him throwing his wicket away, but you can't deny the talent!

One can only hope that we see more of this kind of talent coming out of Kenya and Bangladesh over the next few seasons. The more talent being exposed to top level cricket, the better the health of the world game...