How a Kenyan coach is enticing the USA sports fraternity to embrace Cricket
Former Kenyan national cricket player and coach, Edward “Tito” Odumbe, is in uncharted waters. He is trying to introduce the game of cricket to the baseball and basketball-crazy American audience.
Edward is the Head Coach Men’s USA New Jersey state team in the National competition, which emerged as the champions in 2024. He is also an alternative Coach in schools like West Windsor Plainsboro, Robinsville, Rajasthan Royals Cricket Academy, and West Windsor Township, both in New Jersey.
But it is not all glory introducing cricket to a baseball and basketball-crazy territory. “It is like sowing seeds on rocky soil,” Edward said in an interview with The AfroEconomist. Edward, a former national cricket player and later coach, known among the Kenyan cricket fraternity as “Tito”, says his love for cricket forced him to introduce what he describes as a beautiful game to the “virgin lands”.
But even in his country, Kenya, cricket is not a popular sport. Kenya’s highest point in cricket was in the 1996 World Cup, when the country defeated cricket giants Indies.
Cricket in Kenya remains a privileged sport, dominated by Kenyans of Indian and Pakistani origin. Items like Batting pads (leg protection), Batting gloves (hand protection) and Helmet (head protection) are quite expensive. Till now, cricket has been perceived as elitist with no mass following.
The sport was introduced to Kenya by the British colonialists in the 19th Century. That is the time Cricket spread through the British Empire like India, Australia, the West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and later East Africa (Kenya). It was promoted as a tool of imperial culture, discipline, and the so-called “civilisation”
Even in the USA, Edward’s students are mainly of Indian and Pakistani origin. Large-scale immigration from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Caribbean, and Africa has created millions of cricket lovers.
Cricket was first introduced in North America in the 1700s, particularly in English colonies like Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York. Cricket was one of the most popular sports in the United States by the middle of the 1800s, briefly surpassing baseball in popularity
However, cricket is now competing with baseball, basketball, and American football. With the cricket game set to become an Olympic sport in 2028, the USA must prepare adequately by promoting the game and re-examining the laws governing it.
But for more than a century, cricket remained a fringe sport in the United States—popular among immigrant populations but almost invisible in the mainstream. Yet from 2018 onwards, the sport enjoyed the most dramatic revival in its American history.
The USA is becoming one of the fastest-growing cricket markets in the world thanks to immigration, private investment, globalisation, and the Olympic comeback of cricket.
Edward says that despite the challenges, cricket is growing. He comes from a cricket family that has all played in the Kenya Cricket Association Senior League, beginning with Kenneth Odhiambo Odumbe, Ben Owino, Edward, Martin Oriwo, and Maurice Odumbe.
The Udumbes have achieved notable “firsts” in quotes in Kenyan cricket. Kenneth was the first Kenyan African to earn a century (100 runs) in the Kenyan Cricket Association Division One league. He was also the first African to play for the Kenyan National Team, being that the Kenyan cricket team was dominated by Asians.
Edward, then 19, was a member of the Kenyan team that played the International Cricket Conference (ICC) Trophy competition in England, making it the first African family to have two brothers to play for the Kenyan team in cricket.
He first encountered cricket as a ball boy at the Sir Muslim Club in Ngara in the late 70s. He then played for Aga Khan Sports Club, Nairobi, from 1984 to 2003. In 1984m he was selected to play for Kenya.
He went on to play in the ICC Trophy 1986 in the UK, ICC Trophy 1990 in the Netherlands, ICC Trophy 1994 in Nairobi, where Kenya qualified for the 1996 World Cup after losing to Bangladesh in the final.
He played the 1996 World Cup in India, the 1997 Championship in Nairobi. Edward says that his most memorable match was Kenya versus Canada 1994 ICC trophy, where he emerged as the man of the match for Kenya, and when Kenya beat the mighty West Indies team in the 1996 World Cup
In 2000, he was appointed the Team Manager for U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. In 2002, he was the Head Coach U19 National team for the World Cup in New Zealand. In 2003, he was on the National Selector committee. In 2004, he became a member of the Cricket Kenya Board and Senior National Team Manager.
Edward says that since cricket is not yet a mass-market sport like American football or baseball, cricket in the USA generally functions in a highly open and loosely governed legal environment.
The same general sports, safety, immigration, and organisational restrictions that govern any amateur or professional sport also apply to cricket. “ I think we will succeed in enticing the American public to the game of cricket, which is quite related to their baseball,: said Edward.
