Cricket team batting coach Maurice Odumbe has opened up about his alleged mistreatment by the Kenya Cricket Association (KCA).
Odumbe, who is also a former captain, has never traveled with the team for the test matches since resuming his role as a coach.
In an interview with Citizen’s Jeff Koinange, Odumbe narrated how he was dropped in the 11th hour from the team traveling to South Africa.
“During the latest trip to South Africa I was dropped at the 11th hour with repeated claims that if I went then the team might not win,” he said. Odumbe rubbished the claims for his omission from the South Africa-bound team and called on the chairman to come clear on the matter.
“I told the chairman if you are sacking me, call a press conference and tell the country why you are sacking me,” Said Odumbe. Odumbe further opened up on his suspension from the game, after he was accused of making ‘inappropriate’ contact with a bookmaker.
According to Odumbe, there was a well-orchestrated plan to finish his career, and they managed to do just that. “I did not know that the guy was a bookmaker.
"We met at a hotel, only to realize later on that he was a bookmaker. He would invite me to India, I would go and come back, I was accused that he was preparing me for a big pay-day,” he said.
“Former Scotland yards came to me at my hotel one day…that is how it all started. After they opened the case against me, they brought even my ex-girlfriends that I had not seen in many years, to testify against me. They were flown to the country, they were all foreigners, no single Kenyan testified against me,” he further narrates.
“I was found guilty of ‘inappropriate contact’ that would have brought the game into disrepute,”
Odumbe was a key player for Kenya and will be remembered for leading the team in 2003, when Kenya beat Sri Lanka in Nairobi.