The Sahara Elite League (also known as Zonal League) was a four team cricket competition created by Cricket Kenya featuring a Twenty20 tournament, a one day cricket tournament and finally a three-day cricket tournament.[1] For the inaugural league four teams competed, consisting of the 60 best players according to Cricket Kenya from Kenya.[2]
The first, and what was to be the only, edition of the competition involved four franchises, the Northern Nomads, the Eastern Aces, the Southern Stars, and the Western Chiefs. The teams were captained by National team players, Steve Tikolo, Thomas Odoyo, Kennedy Obuya, and Peter Ongondo 2008.[3] The inaugural T20 Competition, played in February 2008, was won by the Eastern Aces,[4] while the first 50 over competition was won by the Northern Nomads,[5] However the 3-day format of the competition was postponed due to unfavourable weather to June [6] Further difficulties in availability of players, many of whom were in school, meant that the first season of the three-dayers had to be compressed to two days a match.[7] The league was sponsored by South African, Sahara Computers, African Cricket Association and others.[8]
| width=200 | Northern Nomads | width=200 | Eastern Aces | width=200 | Southern Stars | width=200 | Western Chiefs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| valign=top | Thomas Odoyo (Captain) David Obuya Alfred Luseno Jimmy Kamande Rakep Patel Shashikant Sanghani Josephat Ababu Dominic Wesonga Emmanuel Bundi Ringeera Kewal Patel Shem Ngoche Jalat Khan Naseri Kalpesh Patel Anan Gore Jagdish Khetani Mohammed Fazal Bernard Owino (Manager) Joseph Angara (Coach) | valign=top | Steve Tikolo (Captain) Newton Muthee Elijah Otieno Alex Obanda Anish Prabhakar Nelson Odhiambo Harshil Sanghani Ramesh Mepani Vijay Kalyan Lameck Onyango Charles Obuya Amit Bhudia Jeshani Naran Kush Parmar Mitesh Shanghani Sagar Karia Daniel Macdonald (Manager) Shahid Bwibo (Coach) | valign=top | Kennedy Obuya (Captain) Nehemiah Odhiambo Rajesh Bhudia Hiren Varaiya Peter Kituku Ashwin Prabhakar Alpesh Bhudia Darshit Shah Amit Shukla Ashish Bhatt Brijal Patel Jai Trivedi Rajesh Varsani Stewart Kayne Dharmendra Mepani Zahir Abbas Davinder Bharij (Manager) Alfred Njuguna (Coach) | valign=top | Peter Ongondo (Captain) Morris Ouma Moses Otieno Collins Obuya Ken Migai David Maina Harish Varsani Pritesh Lalji Hassan Abdi James Ngoche Prakash Pindolia Malhar Patel Jadavji Jesani Tony Suji Amit Bij David Tikolo (Manager) Martin Suji (Coach) |
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