Sahara Elite League

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 will be competing consisting of the 60 best players according to Cricket Kenya from Kenya.^[2]

Tournament history

The first and what was to be the only edition of the competition involved four franchises, namely 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 and is set to be played in June 2008^[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].

Teams

• Eastern Aces - captained by Steve Tikolo
• Northern Nomads - captained by Thomas Odoyo
• Western Chiefs - captained by Peter Ongondo
• Southern Stars - captained by Kennedy Otieno

Squads

Northern Nomads	Eastern Aces	Southern Stars	Western Chiefs
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)	Steve Tikolo (Captain) Newton Muthee Elijah Otieno Alex Obanda Nelson Odhiambo Harshil Sanghani Ramesh Mepani Vijay Kalyan Lameck Onyango Charles Obuya Amit Bhudia Mansukh Naran Kush Parmar Mitesh Shanghani Sagar Karia Daniel Macdonald (Manager) Shahid Bwibo (Coach)	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)	Peter Ongondo (Captain) Maurice 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)

Results

Three-day matches

14-15 June Scorecard	Northern Nomads 51/1	v	Eastern Aces	Match drawn Nairobi Gymkhana Club, Nairobi Umpires: Narendra Dave and David Pamba
	David Obuya 19 (38) Elijah Otieno 1/22
Northern Nomads won the toss and elected to bat

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14-15 June Scorecard	Western Chiefs 119 all out (41.2 overs)	v	Eastern Aces 249 all out	Match drawn Ruaraka Sports Club Ground, Nairobi Umpires: Ebrahim Fidahussein and Subhash Modi
	Collins Obuya 46 (75) Hiren Varaiya 3/16 (6.2 overs)		Kennedy Otieno 134* (163) Tony Suji 3/46 (14 overs)
	159 all out (67.3 overs)		22/3 (3 overs)
	Tony Suji 56 (114) Hiren Varaiya 5/32 (21.3 overs)		Dharmendra Mepani 13* (6) Tony Suji 2/4 (1 overs)
Southern Stars won the toss and elected to field

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21-22 June Scorecard	Eastern Aces	v	Southern Stars	Match cancelled Sir Ali Muslim Club Ground, Nairobi
No toss made

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21-22 June Scorecard	Western Chiefs 77 all out (28.5 overs)	v	Northern Nomads 171 all out (54.2 overs)	Match drawn Ruaraka Sports Club Ground, Nairobi Umpires: Lalji Bhudia and Rockie D'Mello
	Harish Vekaria 31 (64) Alfred Luseno 3/26 (9 overs)		Shem Ngoche 51* (89) Peter Ongondo 4/36 (15 overs)
	163 all out (54.2 overs)		62/1 (8.3 overs)
	Tony Suji 44 (91) Thomas Odoyo 3/14 (6 overs)		David Obuya 28* (23) Moses Otieno 1/28 (4 overs)
Northern Nomads won the toss and elected to field

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28-29 June Scorecard	Eastern Aces 239 all out (81 overs)	v	Western Chiefs 208 all out (55 overs)	Match drawn Nairobi Gymkhana Club, Nairobi Umpires: Subhash Modi and David Pamba
	Kush Parmar 75 (160) James Ngoche 4/63 (20 overs)		Maurice Ouma 63 (75) Ramesh Mepani 5/26 (8 overs)
	130/9 (36.1 overs)
	Steve Tikolo 59 (99) Peter Ongondo 3/17 (8 overs)
Eastern Aces won the toss and elected to bat

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28-29 June Scorecard	Northern Nomads 246 all out (89.1 overs)	v	Southern Stars 232 all out (71.2 overs)	Match drawn Sir Ali Muslim Club Ground, Nairobi Umpires: Ashok Ghose and Naresh Shah
	Rakep Patel 75 (119) Hiren Varaiya 5/56 (32.1 overs)		Kennedy Otieno 126 (144) Dominic Wesonga 3/58 (17 overs)
	29/1 (4 overs)
	David Obuya 17 (11) Hiren Varaiya 1/2 (2 overs)
Northern Nomads won the toss and elected to bat

References

1. ^ "Chiefs, Aces start Elite Leagues in emphatic fashion". www.cricketeurope4.net. 24 January 2008. http://www.cricketeurope4.net/DATABASE/ARTICLES2/articles/000027/002765.shtml. Retrieved 25 October 2011. 
2. ^ "Invites out for Zonal League players". www.cricketeurope4.net. 24 January 2008. http://www.cricketeurope4.net/DATABASE/ARTICLES2/articles/000026/002623.shtml. Retrieved 25 October 2011. 
3. ^ http://www.cricketeurope4.net/DATABASE/ARTICLES2/articles/000027/002735.shtml, Sahara Elite League starts this weekend
4. ^ http://uk.cricinfo.com/kenya/content/story/339753.html, Tikolo leads Aces to Twenty20 title
5. ^ http://uk.cricinfo.com/kenya/content/story/342737.html, Nomads edge out the Aces
6. ^ http://uk.cricinfo.com/kenya/content/story/344139.html, Kenya postpones Elite League
7. ^ Cricinfo staff June 9, 2008: http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/kenya/content/story/354126.html Kenya's three-day become a two-day,
8. ^ http://uk.cricinfo.com/kenya/content/story/336533.html, Cricket Kenya launches elite league