Former India international Dodda Ganesh appointed Kenya’s head coach

Former Indian cricketer and bowler Dodda Ganesh has been appointed as the head coach of Kenya’s cricket team. Former Kenya cricket international players Lameck Onyango and Joseph Angara have been appointed as Ganesh’s deputies.

The 51-year-old former Indian bowler will commence his stint with the Africa Qualifiers for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Kenya will play Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Denmark and Jersey in the ICC Division 2 Challenge League in September and T20 World Cup Africa Qualifiers in October.

The 2026 T20 World Cup will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

Ganesh, who played four Test matches and one ODI for India, was a vital cog in the Indian domestic scene. Playing for Karnataka, he picked up 365 wickets and scored more than 2,000 runs in first class cricket.

Ganesh announced his assignment on social media. “Privileged to be named the head coach of the Kenya cricket team,” he wrote on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.

In a video posted by Kenya Cricket, Ganesh was seen interacting with the administrators and the officials of the Kenya Cricket Board.

Kenya have qualified for just one edition of the T20 World Cup, which was the inaugural edition 2007, and Ganesh has a huge task of bringing Kenya back on the international cricketing map. The African nation has had a good run in the ODI format when they played in five ODI World Cups between 1996 and 2011.

Their best-ever finish was in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa where they reached the semifinals, losing to India. Former India international player Sandeep Patil was the head coach of Kenya then. Although it can be argued that some results and forfeiture of matches did help Kenya, they were at their best during the 2003 World Cup.

The result is still the best-ever performance by an Associate Nation in the history of the World Cups.

However, Kenya cricket has been on a downfall since then with the country failing to make a mark in the international scene.