NAIROBI, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan cricket has been thrown into turbulent waters after a court scrapped the interim committee that has been running the sport since April 1.
On Saturday, the Sports Disputes Tribunal under the chairmanship of John Ohaga ordered in a ruling that cricket stakeholders should commence the process of calling for a special general meeting to commence to replace the vacancies so that normal cricket operations could resume.
"The process would be supervised by the tribunal and the matter shall be mentioned on Sept. 4 for further directions," read part of the ruling.
The interim committee was set up after Rashid Echesa, Cabinet Secretary for Sports, dissolved the Cricket Kenya Board (CK) in April and appointed provisional committee of nine members to manage the affairs of the game pending elections, saying something had to be done to salvage the sport.
Trouble for the embattled organization started after the resignation of CK Chairlady, Jackie Janmohammed, and Director of Development Abhijeet Rajar Sarkar in February and the lack of cooperation by six non-elected members had brought the association on its knees.
That was the second time the troubled association was on the chopping block after a previous sports minister formed a caretaker committee in 2004 following a protracted fight between the defunct Kenya Cricket Association and its affiliates, and a strike by national players.
The case filed at the tribunal stemmed from a hearing conducted in July whereby three stakeholders took the interim committee to court for lacking mandate to run the sport.
The ousted group has expressed disappointment and have vowed to appeal the ruling in High Court.
Kenya, once a legitimate candidate for Test status just a decade ago has sunk to the lowly ICC World Cricket League Division III, a far cry from 2003 when the country made history by becoming the first non-Test playing nation to reach the semifinal of the Cricket World Cup.
