Kenya exclude three leading players

NAIROBI, Jan 14 (Reuters) Kenya have excluded three leading players from a tournament of associate nations who will take part in this year's World Cup in the Caribbean.

Wicketkeeper and opening bat Kennedy Otieno, batsman Hitesh Modi and medium pace bowler Martin Suji were not selected for the tournament from January 30 to February 7 featuring Kenya, Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands and Scotland.

''Our rules state that when a player is not in camp two weeks before a major tournament, we can't have him in the team,'' Cricket Kenya chief executive Tom Tikolo told Reuters.

Tikolo said the three had not yet been ruled out of the two-month World Cup starting in March.

Reuters PDS DB2004