Defending Kenya Cup champions Kabras Sugar assistant coach Anthony Ogot confident of retaining the trophy he won last season as the 2016/17 show gets underway on November 5.
Kabras beat Impala 22-5 in a one-sided final in the just concluded Kenya Cup final at the Impala grounds to bag the trophy and Ogot insists he is not ready to relinquish the prestigious title. “ My players will do everything to remain at the helm by the end of the season. They won 16 matches, lost five and drew one to stay top . The side lost 12-24 in their maiden Enterprise Cup final to the back-to-back champions KCB.
The sugar men’s first shot to glory was during the 2014/15 season when they reached the final of the tournament, losing 3-27 to eventual winners KCB in a one-sided affair after edging out the then defending champions Nakuru in the semis. What stood out was that they had just earned promotion into the Kenya Cup from the Nation-Wide League. They would then win the just concluded 2015/16 season, beating Impala Saracens 22-5 in another one-sided affair.
“This season’s Kenya Cup will be the toughest and trickiest ever. We will have to put up a better performance than last season, where we lost the five matches before recovery,” said Ogot, adding; “ We now have the depth and ability to play throughout the entire season and I am confident of retaining the title,” he added.
The team, however, will miss the service of their new signing, Philip Wakorach, who will be in Kampala for the Uganda Cup till December.
“The team is in good shape and all our players are in camp except Philip Wakorach, who will join us in December when he is done with the Uganda Cup. Till then someone will have to fill the gap,” he said.
The team may lose some of their key players should they be drafted into the national Sevens team but Ogot insists the players will feature for his side as long as they will not be traveling. KRU had earlier insisted that players drafted in the national team were not to play in the local sevens and the Kenya Cup league.
“We contracted the players and so they will have to play for us. Aluda Beda and Brian Tanga contributed a lot to our win last season, so did Sikuta who was then at Mwamba. They will turn up for us not unless they are travelling with the national team,”
Kabras are in Conference ‘A’ that also has former champions KCB and Nakuru alongside Mwamba, Western Bulls and University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine. They will kick off their campaign when they host Mean Machine in Kakamega, a side they last hammered 54-3.