Kanbis Sports Club keeps alive the timeless legacy of cricket at Eastleigh High School

Cricket at Eastleigh High School is almost as old as the school which was founded in 1952 as Racecourse Secondary School to cater for the education of the Asian community in the Pangani and Park Road areas. When demand for education increased, the school relocated to its current location in Eastleigh on 16 January 1956 but retained its name until 6 October 1956 when it started life as Eastleigh Secondary School (ESS).

The current name, Eastleigh High School, has been in use since 14th September 1983. Through relocation and name changes, as copies of the school’s magazines published between 1953 and 1971 would attest, the students did not leave their cricket balls and bats behind. If anything, the move to Eastleigh made the sport prosper even more as the students had a bigger space to practice cricket.

“The year began well; not only did we have a new school building but also a practice net and a piece of land where the boys could do something that resembled batting, bowling, and fielding,” Morar Bhai, the Cricket captain, wrote in the school magazine in 1956. Morar Bhai report contrasts that of Manu Bhai, the captain of the Racecourse Secondary School Cricket team in 1953, who made this entry in the 1953 issue of the school magazine.

“Unfortunately, we have not been able to hold any practices because we had no grounds. With the material we have, we are certain to produce a good side when we shall have playing fields.”

The main entrance to Eastleigh High School. Photo by Justine Ondieki

Currently, the sports field at Eastleigh High School has a well-maintained cricket pitch complemented with two concrete walls painted black that act as sight screens for batsmen, a scoreboard, practice nets, a pavilion, equipment for pitch maintenance, a trophy room, changing rooms for players, and store room for playing equipment. However, unlike the days of Manu Bhai and Morar Bhai, that infrastructure is rarely used by students of the school. Instead, it is Kanbis Sports Club that makes use of, and maintains, the facilities.

“Previously, Kanbis Sports Club worked together with our students in practising the sport but over the years, there has been a decline in the number of Eastleigh High School students interested in cricket. The school’s demographics have changed over the years and now the Somalis are the dominant community in Eastleigh and the school, and they prefer football to cricket,” Eastleigh High School Principal Samuel Kimathi said.

“We have a good relationship with Kanbis. Their activities run parallel to the school programme so their cricket sessions do not interfere with learning of the students or practising other sports like football. Their matches also take place on weekends when students are away,” Mr. Kimathi added.

Mr. Kimathi has been at the school for 18 months, a period that shrinks in comparison to the number of years Kanbis Sports Club has been part and parcel of Eastleigh High School.

“We have been training and playing matches here since 1976. We settled on operating from Eastleigh High School because all the other cricket grounds like Goan and Gymkhana had been taken up by other cricket clubs,” Rakep Patel, one of the players and coaches of Kanbis Sports Club, said. Rakep is also one of four Kanbis Sports Club players who are in the national team. The others are Emmanuel Bundi, Nelson Odhiambo, and Sachin Bhudia. The club, which is sponsored by Axcl Group, has 70 players who form the club’s four teams: Kanbis A, Kanbis B, Kanbis C, and Kanbis U19. The Kanbis U19 is sponsored by Silmet.

Among the club’s 70 players are three current students of Eastleigh High School who hope to emulate the legendary Martin Suji, a former student of the school who attained great success with the national team and Kanbis Sports Club. Kanbis Sports Club’s long presence at Eastleigh High School is evidenced in a cricket pavilion that was constructed in 1979 and over the years, their existence at Eastleigh High School has gone beyond cricket as they have also made a significant contribution to the growth and development of Eastleigh High School. Such is their deep relationship with Eastleigh High School that the club has representation in the school’s board of directors.

“Kanbis does its best to support Eastleigh High School. We have assisted with construction of the perimeter well, purchase of a school bus, construction of a library and kitchen, drilling of a water borehole, and setting up of a modern basketball court. We also pay the fees of 15-20 needy students every year,” Rakep said.

Kanbis has dominated Kenyan cricket for years. They once won the Kenya cricket league for 15 consecutive years between 2005 and 2020, and as The Eastleigh Voice photographer Justine Ondieki took photos of their trophies during the interview, Rakep made a subtle joke of their dominance in Kenyan cricket.

“We have more trophies in the store that you can take photos of,” Rakep said.

While dominating and producing players for the national team has not been a challenge for Kanbis Sports Club, it is getting more students of Eastleigh High School to get interested in the sport again.

“We are ready any time to support the school to establish its own cricket team. We have bought the equipment the students can use for training and we have the personnel that can coach and train the students but so far, there has been little interest from the students, and we cannot force them to take up the sport,” Rakep said.

Looking at the school’s history, the lack of interest in cricket by the current lot of Eastleigh High School can be deemed ironical when compared to the experience of the school’s cricket of 1958 which complained of the school neglecting the development of cricket.

“Cricket has been somewhat neglected since the school came into being. The reason for this neglect is mainly the absence of a proper school ground. We have the necessary “raw material” to build upon, the talent and the skills are there, it just needs the opportunity to use them to the full,” that year’s cricket captain, Amarjit Singh, wrote in the school magazine.

Even then, Kanbis did not give up on developing young players and last year, they launched an academy programme that targeted 220 children from all over Nairobi for a cricket clinic.

“Last year we had a big cricket academy programme which attracted 220 children. We facilitated everything from transport to meals and equipment. We had almost 15 coaches, including Martin Suji, working with the kids and we plan to do this programme every year,” Rakep said.

Simon Munyoki, who maintains the cricket ground at Eastleigh High School, explains what it takes to keep the pitch spick and span.

“At the moment, there is no cricket being played because the season is on a break. The Kanbis will resume training ahead of the league matches starting in July,” Munyoki told us.

As they wait for cricket action to resume, everyone at Kanbis is hoping that resumption will come with more Eastleigh High School students taking up the sport. Unlike Amarjit Singh’s and his teammates' experience in 1958, Eastleigh High School has a proper cricket ground and facilities and what is needed is students to use them to the fullest.