Nairobi — The hunt for a national team coach to replace the former West Indies star, Roger Harper, is now over as Cricket Kenya executive committee endorsed the hiring of Andy Kirsten of South Africa during their meeting held at the Ruaraka Sports Club Sunday.

Samir Inamdar had indicated a couple of weeks ago that Kirsten was a front runner after Ian Harvey of Australia turned down the offer as he could not be available on a full time basis as he was committed with the India Cricket League (ICL). He could only be avail himself on part time basis for specialized coaching.

The national players were keen to have Kirsten as their coach after working with him as an assistant coach to Sandip Patil in 2002 as Kenya prepared for the World Cup jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya the following year. He was send by the late Bob Woolmer who was the International Cricket Council High Performance Manager.

Commenting on the possibility of Kirsten come here as a coach a few days ago, Kenya's skipper, Steve Tikolo said 'it would be the best thing to happen for Kenya.' He explained that the players know his work ethics and it would not be difficult to work with him.

On his performance he said: "He improved our fielding and what we did in the World Cup is there for all to see." Catches won matches for Kenya and the country made history by becoming the first non test playing country to reach the events semifinals where they lost to India.

Kanbis, the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association 45 overs defending champions enhanced their chances of retaining the trophy when they beat Sir Ali Muslim Club whom they hosted at Eastleigh Secondary School by 163 runs Sunday.

Ramesh Mepani gave his team a strong foundation on which to build on their innings with a quick century, 124 which came from 100 deliveries with two mighty sixes and 11 fours. He gave his team two productive stands.

He shared a third wicket partnership of 110 with Rajesh Varsani (68) that took scores from 19 to 130.