NAIROBI, Kenya, CMC – Antiguan former West Indies all-rounder Eldine Baptiste is the new national coach of Kenya, replacing South African Andy Kirsten.
Cricket Kenya announced yesterday that Baptiste replaces Kirsten, whose contract expired in May, and will be in charge from September 15, 2009 until June 2011.
“Eldine brings to the national team a wealth of cricketing experience having been a national player himself for West Indies and in recent years after retirement from international cricket has held several coaching positions,” Cricket Kenya said in a statement.
He will become the second West Indian to coach Kenya, after Roger Harper, who guided the Africans to the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean.
Baptiste, 49, represented West Indies in 10 Tests and 43 One Day International (ODI) matches between 1983 and 1990.
He was also the head coach of the Stanford Superstars, who went on to win US$20 million after beating England in the one-off Stanford Twenty20 match last year in Antigua.
Baptiste held coaching positions in South Africa with the domestic side Dolphins, and as technical director for Fidentia in Port Elizabeth.
Kenya have a busy year-end calendar ahead, starting with a tour of Zimbabwe later this month, followed by a tour of South Africa in November.
Cricket Kenya was quoted as saying it hopes Baptiste would put the team “high on the international stage”.
“Baptiste’s immediate role will be to prepare and train the Kenya national team by defining and setting out the performance programme for the team’s training. He will be responsible for all direct coaching and management issues of the team,” the board said.
