CricTracker Exclusive: It is sad and painful to see where our administration has taken Kenya cricket: Aasif Karim

A member of the Kenyan Cricket Team, who went on to become one of the best cricketers of the country and eventually the captain of the national cricket team, Aasif Karim, continues to remain in touch with the happenings of the sport that brought him laurels.

The organiser of the one of its kind film festival, which happens to be the only one in Africa as of now, the Kenya International Sports Film Festival, Karim has been slogging hard for the development of sports in Kenya. The man who pulled off one of the best World Cup spells in 2003, had a chat with CricTracker on the future of cricket in Kenya and also his own time with the team.

Here are the excerpts:

What was it like playing for Kenya during the team’s initial years in the International circuit?

I started playing for the national team in 1980 tour to Zimbabwe at age of 17. On my debut delivery, I got the wicket of Duncan fletcher who later on became the Indian coach. It is always an honour to represent one’s country.

How was the experience of being a part of the team that defeated the West Indies in 1996?

For an amateur cricketer, this could not have been a better experience to play in a world cup and that too in India. Any professional cricketer who has not played a World Cup will always feel he is incomplete.

What is the greatest highlight of your cricketing career according to you?

Every match for the country was meaningful. Yes, definitely the 2003 Australia world cup match remains the top, especially after coming back from retirement and getting Man of the Match award after losing to the best ever Australian team.

How would you describe your team’s progression in the 2003 World Cup, considering the fact that Kenya reached the semi-finals?

Being an associate country and to have a reached semi-finals beating 3 Test-playing nations, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and being competitive in other matches was a great feeling and to date, it remains the same. It is very sad and painful to see, post the World Cup where our administrators have taken our cricket to.

How do you think the sport of cricket has progressed in Kenya?

Cricket is dead and buried for the last few years. We have a completely incompetent, corrupt administration who came in after the glamour the team got and wanted undeserved credit or undeserved limelight. We currently are in division 3 and heading further south. We have an illegal admin who has no respect or following by the clubs. It is time, rather overdue that ICC needs to pull a plug and send us packing home to get our act together.

Any views on the future of cricket in Kenya, given that after players like you, Odumbe and Tikolo left, the team hasn’t done particularly well?

As I’ve told you, the team has been on a downfall. Plus, we had no meaningful development structure as players do fade out. All the funds received from ICC were squandered. I strongly believe a forensic audit should be done.

Where do you see the role of your son, Irfan in taking the sport in the country and your dynasty’s legacy forward?

Irfan has been fortunate over the years as he managed to play top-level varsity cricket in the UK, at the Loughborough University. He represented England in the university World Cup 2015 where they Helost to South Africa in the finals. He was declared the best batsman of the tournament after averaging about 80.

He has played professional cricket in the UK and had some opportunities to play in Second County and premier league in the UK. He currently plays for Kenya also. Unfortunately, the future currently looks bleak here and he is working on getting some opportunities in other cricketing nations.

Any thoughts on sports getting affected due the COVID-19 outbreak, especially in the places that don’t see much cricket being played and this being the prime sporting season.

This is a wake-up call for all of us as individuals and society. We are all on the superhighway and we have forgotten the basic principle of life and taken too many things for granted. It is a time of self-reflection for us as a society. Sports is a very important aspect of life and this has paralyzed all sportsman and the lovers of sports.

All sports are affected globally. With the grace of God, we will come out of this and pray that we come out as better human beings and as a society.