Kenya resolve contract issues with players

Cricket Kenya said on Monday it had reached an agreement over new contracts with 14 national team players, ending a two-month dispute that had threatened to derail the sport.

The crisis reached its height when the players boycotted training in mid June, which led to a pre-World Cricket League tour to England to be scrapped and a badly-demoralised team failing to win a single match during the tournament-proper in the Netherlands.

But with Kenya, preparing to host the ICC Intercontinental Cup leaders, Afghanistan here in early October, Cricket Kenya (CK) officials have been holding a series of meetings with the players and their representatives to resolve the issue.

CK Chief executive Tom Sears announced they have reached an agreement and said the players have accepted to sign new one year contracts, which will run until May 31, 2011.

"Obviously this has been a difficult issue that resulted in a completely unacceptable situation where we were unable to fulfil an important part of our preparation for a major ICC event," said Sears.

"It is fair to say some good has come out of the initial dispute in the fact that after a series of meetings and presentations the players now have a better understanding of Cricket Kenya's plan for the future, the constraints we as an organisation face and their responsibilities as members of the national squad.

"All the players have now agreed new contracts with our original budget for the year which was crucial," he added.

Fourth-place Kenya is scheduled to play Afghanistan in their next ICC Intercontinental Cup on October 2-5 which will be three one-day internationals at the Nairobi Gymkhana club.