Kenya's national cricket Coach Roger Harper is leaving the country amid the team's poor show at the global showcase.
However, despite recent poor results, the West Indian coach expressed some optimism about the state of the game in the country.
"I would like to think that we have made some positive steps as a team and some of the young players have grown, and even though I wouldn't be here, I look forward on them to building on the foundation that has been laid and even going to greater things," said Harper at a farewell party hosted in his honour late Wednesday.
Harper, who took charge in January 2006, steered the side to success in the World Cricket League but turned down the offer of an extension to his contract as he wanted to return home to his family in Guyana.
"We have had our high points and also times when we could have done better," he told reporters in Nairobi.
The 44-year-old Guyana national is leaving the country on Friday after 20 months of coaching the national team.
Harper took over a side which was rusty from three years of inactivity and which was far from united.Through example and tough training regimes, he built a strong unit.
"Beating the top-ranked teams is never going to be easy," he said.
"Kenya did well in winning the Associate tournament but we were a little of bit of disappointment in our performance at the World Cup and the Twenty20," he said.
"The players did not believe on themselves when it came to playing against the big teams."
Harper, who is credited with building a cohesive and disciplined playing unit, said the team's future success would depend on the commitment of the players and cricket administration in building sound structure of development.
"I still believe that Kenya are the number one Associate country in the world although there is lack of self belief in some players. They should go out there and try to make a name for themselves," he added.
Harper called on Cricket Kenya to establish a sound program and structure to encourage the right attitude and technique in upcoming players to ready them adequately for competition when they are introduced to the international game.
"Authorities should create more competitive and intense leagues and engage them in more international matches to develop their skills. In the Twenty20 World Cup, the highly skilled players were able to settle in more quicker to the fast game and score more runs than ours," he said.
"This is a big challenge for us to compete against the experienced players. The performance was a bit of a concern and I don't think that some of the players went out there and did their all," Harper said.
Cricket Kenya is advertising for replacements and hopes to start conducting interviews early next month.
Source: Xinhua
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