Peter Kirsten has phoned his brother, Andrew, on a few occasions in the past ten months to give him a few pointers on how the Kenyan side should approach their Cricket World Cup matches in South Africa.
Andrew, the assistant-coach to Sandeep Patil of the Kenyan side, has listened to the advice of the Western Province coach and South Africa’s premier batsman in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and so has almost everybody in the Kenyan side. Except for arguably their best player, Steve Tikolo.
Tikolo (31) is the captain and stalwart of the Kenyan side, but he has failed on several occasions during this World Cup because he has not followed Kirsten’s advice in the Newlands nets.
”’I have been to the nets and have spoken to one or two of the players. Obviously I don’t want to interfere too much because Sandeep Patil is the coach and Andy the assistant-coach,” Peter said.
”But I have said to him (Tikolo) to cut out the hook shot, and to move his feet early. Yet, Steve keeps on getting out off the hook shot. He’s been out in that fashion on at least two occasions,” Peter added.
But Kirsten is full of praise for the Kenyan side. ”They have been very disciplined in their bowling. ‘They do not stray, they restrict the half volleys and no-balls and have been very accurate,” he said.
Tikolo has a respectable average of 28.64 in 58 One-day internationals with one hundred and 12 fifties,yet he has failed in several World Cup-matches so far.
If the captain can recapture his form, Kenya might have a chance of upsetting the odds in next Thursday’s semi-finals at Kingsmead in Durban against India.
But the older Kirsten, Peter, who has an average of 38,02 in 40 one-day internationals, believes that Tikolo needs a more conservative approach and cut out the expansive hook shot early in his innings.
Kirsten does not want any reward for his bits and pieces of friendly advice. ”I just hope Andy (Kirsten) will get a share of the prize money of $400 000,” Peter chirped. – Sapa