Former West Indies fast bowling all-rounder Eldine Baptiste has been appointed Kenya cricket coach on a two-year term until June 2011, the team announced on Wednesday.
The 49-year-old Baptiste, who played 10 Tests and 43 One Day Internationals for his country, becomes the second West Indian to take charge of the Kenya team after Roger Harper in 2006. He replaces South African Andy Kirsten whose contract expired in May.
"Eldine brings to the national team a wealth of cricketing experience having been a national player himself for West Indies, and in recent years after retirement from cricket has held several coaching positions," Cricket Kenya chief Tom Tikolo said.
"Most notable is that he was head coach of the Stanford 20/20 Super Star Series 2008, which went on to win the series and prize money of 20 million dollars," he added.
Eldine, who has also served as head coach of South African side Kwazulu Natal, joins Kenya when the national team is preparing for a tour of Zimbabwe later this month and South Africa in November.
"His immediate role will be to prepare and train the Kenya national team by defining and setting out the performance program for the team's training. He will be responsible for all direct coaching and management issues of the team," Tikolo said.
