•Njuguna, an astute observer of cricket, said the choice of players for the qualifiers left a lot to be desired
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Former national team cricketers Alfred Njuguna and Martin Suji have questioned the selection criteria and mode of training in the wake of the country’s poor results at the just concluded ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifiers.
Njuguna, an astute observer of cricket, said the choice of players for the qualifiers left a lot to be desired adding that a number of them did not even deserve to don national team colours.
“The unfortunate aspect of the team’s campaign was the team selection. We knew we had the qualifiers coming up but we couldn’t pick the right team. We settled on players who have little to offer in the national squad,” said Njuguna.
Prior to the UAE tournament, team selection sparked harsh debate as stakeholders wanted to know how underperforming or inactive players found their way in the team.
“Questions were raised on how the process was conducted but CK evaded the debate. The national team performance in UAE did not, therefore come as a surprise to some of us,” Njuguna added.
“We had a number of players who have been doing well but didn’t get selected,” noted Njuguna. Suji, who coached the team for two years, said inadequate training affected the team as there was no chemistry in the squad.
“We prepared for less than a month, which was not enough for such an event. It was also evident that we couldn’t pick the right team for an event of such calibre. We even finished the tournament without knowing who our first team were. We kept on experimenting with each game and that worked to our disadvantage,” Suji lamented.