Kenyan national league still on track

Samir Inamdar, the Cricket Kenya chairman, has told Cricinfo that the national elite league will proceed despite the ongoing problems affecting the Nairobi province.

The original intention was for the league to launch in December when availability is likely to be at its highest because of holidays. But logistically that might not be possible as Kenya host Under-15s and women's tournaments that month. It now seems likely that the league will be staged in early January.

The finances are already in place after the African Cricket Association pledged US$35,000 to the competition. CK is seeking corporate sponsors for each region to help offset travel costs, and also an overall tournament sponsor.

CK is planning a stakeholders meeting in early December to discuss how the league will work among other matters affecting the game in the country.

The proposals are for a four-side zonal league in which teams will play in three formats - three-day, one-day and Twenty20. The zonal sides are likely to be geographically based, with two probably coming from Nairobi, one from the Coast and one from the other regions.

Players in the centrally-contracted national squad will be divided between the four sides to ensure there is balance between the teams and to ensure that the standard of all matches is as high as possible. In practice, that will probably mean that each team has seven local players supplemented with four members of the national side.