Nairobi needs to lead the way

Sharad Ghai: on the comeback trail? © Cricinfo

The recent announcement that the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association are to hold elections on November 7 was hardly earth-shattering. But reading between the lines, it is apparent that Kenya's largest and most influential province is behaving in a way worryingly similar to the old and unlamented Kenyan Cricket Association.

The KCA, it might be recalled, almost single handedly brought Kenyan cricket to its knees before it was unceremoniously removed in 2005. Despite being widely despised, despite alienating stakeholders and players, despite leaving the account shredded, it remained long past its sell-by date because of a canny manipulation of legal processes and a skewed constitution which made it very hard to remove officials from office.

At the heart of the problem was that constitution, the key element of which allowed the existing board to vote for themselves when elections came round. Only by a coalition of provinces could officials be removed, and they even got round that possibility by expelling the NPCA.

At the time the KCA were removed from office, the Africa Cricket Association and ICC insisted that the national and provincial boards adopt new more democratic constitutions which ended the anomaly of the board members being able to vote themselves back into office. Everyone, including the outgoing KCA chairman Sharad Ghai, bought into that.

In May 2005, Salim Dhanji, the NPCA chairman, agreed with Ghai that his board would consider and adopt the new constitution - Cricinfo has seen mails between the two board heads to that effect. Within a year Cricket Kenya, which replaced the KCA, and the other two provinces - Coast and Rift Valley - had also made the change.

But two-and-a-half years after the KCA were ousted, the NPCA still has no new constitution. That would be bad enough were it an accountable entity, But until an acrimonious meeting in June, it had not held an AGM or submitted accounts to its members in three years. Dhanji emigrated to Australia in January, and still the membership was not consulted over a replacement.

In June when a meeting was finally held, it was clear that the members were unhappy. The accounts were rejected and a letter was drafted and signed by 10 of the 17 Nairobi clubs present demanding the resignation of the executive. While some clubs subsequently distanced themselves from their representatives actions, it highlighted that all was not sweetness and light.

Despite considerable bluster, the executive remained but did announce a committee to review the constitution. Confusion followed, AGMs were called and cancelled, and acrimonious exchanges took place. Allegations flew from both sides, perhaps the most remarkable being that Ghai was engineering a comeback, supported by Sukhbans Singh, the acting chairman and a man who had previously been vehemently opposed to his old schoolmate Ghai.

Meanwhile, Cricket Kenya delayed its own elections, arguing that it needed a democratically elected NPCA representation to enable them to take place openly and fairly.

It was generally thought that the NPCA would wait for the review committee to report and then put its findings to the Nairobi clubs. But late last month it pulled a flanker and announced that elections would take place under the old constitution while the review was being sat on by lawyers.

What that meant was that instead of the 17 Nairobi clubs having a total of 51 votes (three each) there would be 64 votes as the executive would have one each, even though some of them are reportedly no longer affiliated to any club. The net result is that as clubs' votes are usually divided, it will be hard - but far from impossible - for clubs to remove the individual members of the executive.

The reasons for not waiting or for not adopting the same constitution as the rest of Kenya's organisations lack credibility and it rather depressingly suggests a tarnished group of men are desperate to cling on to power. The reasons are unclear. The NPCA is not rich, nor does control of it give a majority on the CK executive as the other provinces can outvote even a united Nairobi delegation.

The NPCA controls the bulk of clubs and its success is crucial to the future of Kenyan cricket. That means it has to operate in an open manner. Given the efforts made by many within the NPCA to oust the KCA, it almost beggars belief that they are now prepared to use the same tactics to try to guarantee their own existence.

In the last few days there are signs that the elections might be delayed a little longer to allow the new constitution to be in place and used for them. It is likely that pressure for such a move has come from outside Kenya as well as within. For the sake of the game in Kenya and also in Nairobi that is vital. If a result of that is that the likes of Ghai and Singh are returned to a position of responsibility then it will have been done in an openly democratic means, and that is what matters.

Whether their presence is good for the long-term future of the game is another matter entirely. For now, all people want is transparency.