ODUMBE'S JOURNEY TO HELL AND BACK

Believe it or not, even at 50, Kenyan cricket legend Maurice Odumbe can still hit a six in competitive cricket. The former international who, for all intent and purposes, is retired as an elite player still plays the game as good as professionals half his age.

“It is down to the desire, passion and drive that I have for the game. Cricket gave me everything. My parents did not have to pay school fees for us in our youth and it is all down to the talent I and my brothers had for cricket,” said Odumbe who is often called up to feature for clubs in Mombasa, particularly during the Coast NCBA T20 tournament

“It gives me the satisfaction that I can still hack it at this age while still mentoring upcoming cricketers. I am happy and enjoying my time in the game,” he said

Indeed cricket is Odumbe’s life. It is what made him a household name among sports lovers and it is what brought his life tumbling down.

In his deliberate, soft-spoken, impeccable English, it is clear that ‘Mori’ as he is fondly known in the cricket circles, was brought up well by his civil servant parents at Park Road Government quarters in Starehe constituency.

“I was brought up in a polygamous family. My dad, who passed on when I was four years, worked in the Ministry of Livestock while my mother’s job was with the Ministry of Education. We were a family of over ten brothers and sisters. I started my schooling at Dr Aggrey Primary before moving to Upper Hill Secondary,” Odumbe said.

While still a teenager at Upper Hill, Odumbe had little interest in cricket and instead had a passion for rugby, football and athletics. Odumbe also indulged in a little bit of music and was in the choir that finished second in the national music festival at the KICC in 1984.

“I only took part in cricket because of my elder brother, the Late Kenneth Odumbe who was the first indigenous black to play for   Kenya. The adulation he received made me follow him everywhere he played. We lived near Sir Ali Muslim grounds and I could go there and act as a ball boy and later play with bats from the Kenyan Indians around there.

Though he did not know it then, the interest piqued by his brother’s achievements on the cricket pitch would catapult him to worldwide stardom and a superstar lifestyle.

“While still in secondary, I started playing competitive cricket with Globe who would pay my tuition fees. Later, I moved to Wanderers in Karura Forest, where I played alongside Ugandans (Joe Kamu, Ondoch, Nagenda) exiled by the turmoil in their country in the mid-eighties,” he recalled.

Odumbe’s budding career would be shaped with the Aga Khan team, where the rivalry he had with his brothers, some of whom turned out for rivals Swamibapa (Bernard Owino and the late Martin Oriwo), drove him to greater heights.

“We all wanted to go home with the bragging rights and show mum who was better and that ‘friendly rivalry’ brought the best out of us. I can remember a time when my brother Martin bowled us out and I was batting. Later an Indian teammate wondered aloud if Martin was really my brother yet ‘he wanted to kill you with those balls’,” he quipped. That family affair would extend to their appearances in the national team.

Odumbe got his first call up to the Kenyan national cricket team in 1986 for a trip to England for the ICC tournament but he did not make the travelling party.

That same year saw him named as the best upcoming player in the national cricket league—a feat that had previously been achieved by his older brother Edward ‘Tito’ Odumbe.

“I was honoured to receive the awards from a legendary Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev, who had led his country to clinch the 1983 World Cup. That opened up my mind to many possibilities if I worked hard at my game,” Odumbe said.

The young batsman was never short of inspiration figures around him. His other sibling Bernard was the highest wicket-taker in the country.

“All around, there were top cricketers. There were the Tikolo brothers (Steve, Tom and David); the Sujis (Daniel, Martin and Tony) and Tarik Iqbal and you had to be on your toes to be the best. With us appearing at the time for rival teams, Aga Khan and Swamibapa, the matches were intense and the grounds would be full with everyone expecting a thriller and we never let them down,” Odumbe reminisced.

Odumbe’s first trip overseas with the national team came in 1990 when he and his three brothers (Bernard, Tito and Martin) as well as Tom, David Tikolo and McDonald and Martin Suji competed for the ICC Trophy in Holland.

“The conditions there were horrible. It was rainy and windy and we lost to Holland but still managed to be the highest scorer averaging one hundred,” said Odumbe.

Those impressive performances in the Netherlands saw him included in the Kenyan team that participated in the 1996 World cup in India. He would feature in two more consecutive world cups in 1999 (England) and South Africa in 2003.

“I was ‘Man of the Match’ in all the three World Cups I took part in. We beat West Indies in 1996 despite having the best cricketer at the time, Brian Lara in their ranks. We then played Sri Lanka in 1999 and also against Bangladesh in 2003,” he enthused.

Being a World Cup veteran deals were on the table for the cricket star and he joined Nijmegen in Holland in 1997 and Addiscombe in England two years later for his professional career. But the lasting memory he had abroad was the xenophobia he witnessed while playing for Soweto in South Africa in 1996.

“We were visiting a mall in Durban, where many whites were around and all of a sudden, a dog being walked by a white person, just started barking menacingly at us. Had it not been on a tight leash and in control of the owner, it would have attacked us just because perhaps it had been trained that blacks are dangerous,” Odumbe recalled with disappointment.

He went on: “Also at a certain lodge, where we stayed, the waitress refused to serve us allegedly on orders from the management. We inquired why they were not serving us yet we were staying there but nothing changed until we invoked the name of government representatives for them to tone down.”

According to Odumbe, his impressive outputs that led Kenya, a non-test country, to reach the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup made him a marked man.

“At the tournament, I was surprised that I had been tested for doping in five of our seven matches yet it was supposed to be a random choice for the team managers. This, in hindsight, should have raised red flags. All I can say is that the powers that be did not want me to play for my country and subsequent events proved that,” he rued.

Indeed, it was from the occurrences leading up to the World Cup in Johannesburg that led to Odumbe’s downfall in cricket. He was accused of having ‘inappropriate contact’ with Jagdesh Sodha; a supposed ‘Indian Movie star’ who later turned out to be a bookmaker.

“All the evidence they had was a bill I had incurred from our pre-tournament camp in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe which showed I had made a call to India and this is what they used to punish me,” he explained while maintaining his innocence.

This was the beginning of his fall from grace. From living a lavish life on the fast lane, he was now a pariah in the eyes of cricket authorities. The five-year ban was instituted in 2004 and he served it without the opportunity for an appeal returning to the game in 2009.

Since his enforced hibernation from the sport ended, the fortunes of Kenyan cricket dwindled as the country was relegated to the ICC World Cricket League in 2018 having relinquished their One Day International (ODI) status four years earlier.

Odumbe’s full rehabilitation back into the game occurred when he was named the Kenyan cricket national team coach in 2018.

“I am now focusing all my energies on the development of the game. Since our last World Cup in Asia, we have not appeared at the top level and have lost our status. However, with the right investment and support, we will get back to our previous heights,” he concluded.

Right now Odumbe, a father of two sons, juggles playing invitational tournaments with working with the national team at the Ruaraka Sports Club. The Kenyan cricketers are preparing to take part in the inaugural Africa Twenty20 Cup from March 22 to 27.