CONTROVERSY MARS VICTORIA CUP TEAM KENYA SELECTION
KGU chairman Lucas Maranga (right) and former chairman Richard Wanjala (left) at a past event. KGU named a team to represent the country at the Victoria Cup on Thursday.
By AMANDA DAMARIS
Just a day after Kenya Golf Union (KGU) released the names of golfers who will do duty at the third edition of the Victoria Cup set for July 25-28 at VetLab Sports Club, questions have been raised on the criteria the union used to come up with the ten names that were released.
Former captain Robinson Owiti is set to move to the Sports Dispute Tribunal (SDT) on Monday seeking heir intervention on the matter as he says that consultations with the Union management have not yielded any fruits as different officials have conflicting information on the same.
Initially KGU used the Kenya Amateur Golf Championship (KAGC) tournament standings to select their teams and then proposed a qualifying tournament format which was not well received. For the Victoria Cup, a tournament was organized for the inaugural event while the KAGC standings were used in the edition’s selection.
“Golfers have asked for the criteria used but nothing is forthcoming. Traditionally, an announcement was made on when the team will be unveiled for any tournament but it was not the case for this edition. The naming has also been done too close to the tournament as opposed to a month or two to the said competition as is the norm,” said Owiti.
The golfer has also questioned how three golfers were handed wild cards at the expense of others who are ranked higher on the current KAGC standings after the Coronation Trophy.
Simon Njogu of Great Rift, Samuel Njoroge and John Lejirma of Railways and Owiti who plays for Vet Lab are ranked fourth to seventh
on the KAGC standings and would have made the team had that criteria been used. However in their place Dennis Saikwa, Paul Muchangi and Daniel Nduva ranked 8th to 10th have made the team.
In the union’s defence, tournament director Antony Murage explained that the KAGC standings were not used and a decision was reached to add the slots for juniors from two to three. Additionally only one wild card was given to disabled golfer Isaac Makhoha following a good golfing season.
“The other six slots were rightfully awarded to players who ranked high in the moving average. This criterion selects the top golfers from ten best average scores from the last 12 tournaments. As for the timing of the team naming, we had to wait for the Kenya Amateur match play to be over before compiling the team,” said Murage adding that the team is already in training and the union is confident they will perform well.