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Journalism of Courage
On the eve of their first match of the Champions Trophy against India, Kenyan skipper Steve Tikolo could well have stirred a hornet’s nest when he criticised the ban against his former skipper Maurice Odumbe. ‘‘It will be very disappointing. Personally I feel the ban on him was harsh, given the evidence given there against him,’’ he told The Indian Express.
Odumbe has been banned for five years by the Kenyan Cricket Association, after his estranged wife sang to the investigators about his illegal activities. He was found guilty on 12 counts of accepting money from bookmakers on several occasions. This included fixing a game against Zimbabwe for US$5000.
‘‘I don’t want to comment on why the Board did what it did. I can’t decide but Maurice has given 100 per cent everytime he has stepped on the field to play for the Kenyan team,’’ Tikolo argued.
He also claimed that he had never been approached. ‘‘I know nothing about any of my teammates being involved in these kind of things.”
Tikolo, who will step down from the captaincy after the meet expressed confidence that his team will not be under any pressure if they were to beat India or Pakistan in the league stage of the tournament. ‘‘We will not worry about anything like that. Every Kenyan will give his 100 per cent,’’ he said.
The Kenyan team had beaten Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the last World Cup to make it to the semi-final. They also beat India in 2001 in a triangular series in South Africa. Tikolo also pointed out that though India has fared badly over the past few weeks they were anything but pushovers.
‘‘India is a top team, even if they are playing badly. It takes one player or one game to turn things around. I would not say that because they are losing we are going to beat them.’’
‘‘And the same goes for Pakistan who have fast bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami. It is always a challenge to face speedsters like those.”
