KNSC to do all possible

Kenya has met International Cricket Council (ICC) security requirements for hosting two World Cup matches next month, Kenyan National Sports Council (KNSC) chairman Joshua Okuthe said on Friday.

Okuthe told reporters a document giving an undertaking to provide standard security for the competition would be signed by government officials later on Friday.

"The government is fully committed to providing the standard security requirement by the ICC. The document detailing all this will be signed today and sent by courier to South Africa and ICC headquarters in London to reach them by latest on Monday," Okuthe said.

"The issues raised by ICC have all been looked at and resolved and the private security provider will work closely with the Kenya police to ensure all goes on well."

He described the signatories as cabinet-level officials but did not identify them.

The World Cup, starting on February 9, will be staged mainly in South Africa plus Zimbabwe and Kenya. New Zealand are scheduled to play in Nairobi on February 21 and Sri Lanka three days later.

New Zealand raised security concerns after last November's suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa which killed 17 people and a near-miss missile attack on an Israeli jet liner about the same time.

An ICC delegation on safety and security conducted a two-day inspection tour of Kenya on January 12 and 13, which triggered speculation that the world governing body might move the two matches from Nairobi to South Africa.

Campbell Jamieson, the ICC commercial manager and leader of the delegation, told a news conference after the inspection that it would make a detailed report to the ICC which would then make a decision on whether Kenya would host the matches.

World Cup tournament director Ali Bacher said on Friday the two matches could still be moved out of Kenya due to safety concerns.

"We're not contemplating any of the matches being moved in the event of a worst case scenario we have the structures and the capacity to accommodate any changes if ruled by the ICC," Bacher told Reuters.

The chairman of the World Cup Organising Committee in Kenya Sharad Ghai said it was up to the whole cricketing family and not only New Zealand as to whether the matches would go ahead.

"New Zealand can express their concerns but it is the Board of Directors of the ICC, which includes (KCA chairman) Jimmy Rayani to make that decision and this will involve all the 10 Test-playing nations plus Kenya, the Netherlands and Malaysia," Ghai said.

Ghai said he was confident Kenya would host the matches, adding that representatives from Worldwide Nimbus, who secured sponsorship for Cricket World Cup, had flown into Nairobi on Thursday and were holding a series of meetings with the KCA over the issue of television and sponsorship of the Kenyan team.

Fresh security concerns about east Africa, where 1998 bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam killed 224 people, followed warnings issued by Britain and the United States about possible extremist attacks in neighbouring Tanzania.