As cricket was once a dominating sport, beating almost every market around the world, it has experienced a huge downfall in most nations during recent times. With teams like Kenya and Zimbabwe making the Super 6’s, plus semi-finals at one point, these teams stand no chance of making it close to the finals in cricket’s current political state.
In fact, at this rate, only 5 different nations have made a white-ball ICC trophy since 2017, which include England, New Zealand, Australia, India, and Pakistan. Making it super directed towards these 5 or 6 nations has really ruined the competition of the game that was once loved by over 30 nations around the world.
Seeing that it was a British-created sport, after a lot of the nations gained freedom from England, cricket became part of their ever-growing culture. A way for all these countries to feel some sort of pride as they were rebuilding their countries, everyone seemed like they were in their peaks during the 1990’s and 2000’s, until BCCI basically became the richest board in cricket and completely robbed that same joy these nations once used to feel when the English ran cricket.
In later parts, when we will talk about teams like West Indies and Sri Lanka, it is just amazing how one cricket board can ruin the hopes and dreams of millions from other nations who used to once dominate the sport. During this piece, though, we will focus on the Chevrons and the Kenya cricket team, as they were two units ready to become the next big thing, but things like leagues such as IPL and BCCI completely affected them.
The Zimbabwe Downfall That Has Only Seen Them Making It Past The Group Stage Once
Talking about the Chevrons cricket side, this once used to be a team that would consistently make World Cups and were starting to build their name as favorites. Seeing that they made the Super Sixes in both 1999 and 2003, nowadays this team has had trouble just even qualifying for the ODI World Cup, with the last time being 2015.
Those great names like Heath Streak and Andy Flower are now forgotten, while these two players have turned to coaching for league sides around the world. So, many people will question how exactly BCCI and ICC destroyed this side’s legacy. The first thing is that despite the Chevrons going 1-1 in the 2007 T20I WC, there was only one player picked for the IPL, which ended up being the Indian board’s main way of making money two decades down the line.
Seeing that he was the only one picked, these IPL owners and Indian cricket members would keep on leaving out Zimbabwe players in the auctions, which has led to them just having 5 total players during this 20-year run. T20 skills and more could have been built by playing in this league with some of the top players from top nations, but BCCI continued to leave them out. People may say this is a bad excuse, but then why is it that a team like Afghanistan, whose done much less than Zimbabwe ever did, have so many IPL contracts and makes big money.
Cricket and political issues or friendships between countries are two separate things, but this is a clear example of how BCCI just wanted to help a nation like Afghanistan because the nations are just friends, but clearly missed out on the fact that Zimbabwe’s side is much stronger.
Even in this current World Cup after hitting 97 not out, an Indian reporter was confused about who Brian Bennett was, and it was easy to tell how insulting that was for Bennett. Although people bring up the arm-band issue from the early 2000’s, this Chevrons unit didn’t have a direct sponsor to help with their equipment until this year. Having to do everything on their own, ICC chairman Jay Shah helped other sides like the UAE and Oman, who play one format properly, already get these big deals with companies just because players used to formerly play for India’s domestic circuit.
Before that, 2019 ICC president Shashank Manohar was a big reason why Zimbabwe got suspended from international cricket due to funding issues, and in no way did he support them with finances. He was busy changing IPL franchises around after and before CSK, plus RR’s suspensions, and allowing leagues like legends league, plus SL20, BPL20, Big Bash, and more to thrive. With no help in building a proper infrastructure for Zimbabwe today, their domestic leagues are there, but they’re not as strong as once from the top nations.
Kenya Went From A Juggernaut To Complete Loss In Just Over A Decade
For Kenya, the situation is very similar as this was a side that had made the semi-finals during the 2003 World Cup. Looking like they were going to be the next big thing in cricket, these politics completely affected them, and now they haven’t been able to qualify for a single ODI World Cup since 2011, while only making it to the T20 tournament once in inagurual T20 WC 2007.
With the previously mentioned Shashank Manohar in charge, he not only made them lose confidence after some brutal defeats during 2011, but his plan was to take Kenya out of ODIs altogether in 2014 after an alleged “poor performance”. If this were really true, the real question is, why are weaker sides like Afghanistan and Bangladesh playing these tournaments?
Seeing that not only the cost would be less to play them, they know these cricket boards would be more weaker and just keep following what ICC tells them to do. In the same topic of IPL, a lot of these owners own leagues around the world, but haven’t taken one Kenyan player on their side. They can’t use achieving nothing as an example because someone like Steve Tikolo or Collins Obuya would have been things in these various different leagues. Seeing that they don’t have funding for their own cricket league, ICC’s plan was to build an APL league for Afghanistan because they were political friends, while not helping Kenya be funded at all. Also, with India not having many tours or matches with them after the 1998 and 2001 defeats, it shows that it was never in BCCI or ICC’s feelings to help build up excitement for a surprise nation once again.
Knowing that they have gone all the way down to the lower tiers of associates, test cricket is no longer played there, and there is no funding to start their own circuit. With this being said, it would once again be interesting to see Kenya at the top, but with Jay Shah in control of the ICC and BCCI helping the main nations build these entertainment leagues, it will be hard for associates to compete again.
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