The Bamburi Not So Super Series.

The curtains came down on the 11th edition of the Bamburi Super Series this weekend and many would agree that this was the poorest showing from the tournament this far.

The 11th edition saw several changes to the formula that had worked really well over the tournament's ten year history. First there was a new management, Sasha Mutai replacing Aggrey Chabeda as the chairman of the organising committee, along with a host of other changes to the committee. Then the reconstitution and renaming of the franchises, these changes were understandably aimed at giving the tournament a new lease of life, to take it to the next level if you may.

With the tournament now behind us, it is clear that we have made major leaps, in the wrong direction. As a new management, the first year is usually pretty tough, but this was just extra ordinary. The TV deal was my first point of failure, after opting out of the Super Sport deal for whatever reason, couldn't we get another broadcaster? Zuku who were handed the deal, are way below par, with a total subscription of 5 people, did it make any sense? GBS would have offered a wider reach...

A joke was going around that Zuku's O.B van was a motor bike.. (An Outside Broadcast van is the big truck/van that is usually parked where a broadcaster is covering an event live, like the blue super sport one, yes that one.) This is the 21st century, there are multiple means of broadcasting matches, setting up a live stream broadcast for example.

Before the reconstitution of the franchises, one of the major criticisms the tournament faced was the fading level of competition. The super series was initially meant to show case the 100 top players in the country, that had not been the case for a few years now. The reconstitution however only led to a further deep in quality, cricket scores have been the order of the 11th edition.

Kengewa's 145-12 thumping of the Mamba was the highest score line in the super series history. I have mentioned here before, that the idea to have regional franchise sides is a great one, it will see the game spread and develop immensely. How they are being integrated though, is where we are getting it wrong. We are throwing players who have had little or no exposure in the game right inside the deep end.

Do you think the Mamba players learnt anything in that match against the Kengewa, I bet they were numb, tired and overwhelmed by the time the score hit 60. The Kengewa players too gained nothing from that match, they have had harder training sessions. A solution would be breaking up the structure into two divisions of four, that will run concurrently with relegation and promotion at the end of every tournament.

The last 4 teams play in the second division with the first four obviously in the first, the winner of the second division will earn promotion to the first division at the expense of the last franchise in the same. The second division could have room for expansion, hosting any new franchises, with the top strictly down to four of the best franchises. This way we kill the proverbial two birds with one stone, we maintain the quality while fostering development.

Then there was the mother of all fuck ups..forgive my language but it could not be put any other way. The home semi final fiasco whose ripple effects have hit the national fifteens side. Before the tournament kicked off, it was agreed that in the event a Ugandan franchise made it to the semi finals, it will host that match in Kampala, see the poster below;

Before match day 3, the last round of the pool stage, it was communicated to the franchises that whoever topped their respective pools would host their semi final. The Nyumbu went on to top Pool A, with the Ndovu doing the same in Pool B at the end of match day 3.

It was then revealed that the initial agreement would hold, that since Rwenzori had made it to the Semi finals, they would host the Nyumbu in Kampala. The Nairobi based franchise did not take this lightly as they threatened to boycott the fixture, if it was not to be held at the RFUEA grounds. On the Friday before the match, the organisers availed air tickets for the Nyumbu to travel to Kampala to honour the fixture.

The Nyumbu would not have any of that, in a last ditch effort, the organisers allegedly asked the Kengewa who had not qualified for the Semi finals to fill in that spot, they flatly refused the offer. So the organisers pulled frantic efforts to assemble a make shift side under Michael 'Tank' Otieno to travel and play under the Nyumbu name, against Rwenzori.

This move dented the tournament's reputation out rightly, a reputation that had taken 10 years to built came crushing down in an evening. It was a tricky spot to be in, with neither side bulging or even willing to talk it over, and time running out, something had to be done. But assembling a side of 'mercenaries' was not the best of moves. This whole debacle could have been avoided if the organisers had a clearly defined communications channel and involved the franchises fully in making such decisions.

That circus is the apparent reason the Kenya 15's side that travelled to South Africa on Sunday was missing captain Joel Nganga (Nyumbu), Vincent Mose (Nyumbu) the two however rejoined the rest on Tuesday. This row is also behind the resignation of long serving Kenya 15's Team Manager Wangila Simiyu, last week, citing a clash of principles with some KRU board members.

As they say, all that is water under the bridge now, we can only learn from these mistakes. Sasha Mutai and indeed the team below him are a well able force. The same faces ran the highly successful 2012 Safari sevens, so this should have been like winger going round a prop, easy. Only they know what really went wrong..we just hope that we wont be seeing any of the same next year or any other year to come.

With that Ladies and Gentlemen.......

Do have a Political free week aaaannnnnnnnndddddddddddd............

KWISHA....Nimeruka Nje!!!!