By Oliver Brett BBC Sport

A famous day: Kenya beating Sri Lanka in Nairobi

Many of the most positive memories of the Cricket World Cup 12 months ago involve Kenya.

Incredibly, they reached the semi-finals after beating three Test teams in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

The flashing blade of Maurice Odumbe, the mesmerising leg-spin of Collins Obuya and some brilliant performances in the field left onlookers full of admiration.

Kenya were not quite so brilliant in their three one-day internationals at a tournament in Sharjah soon after the World Cup.

But the team spent the remainder of the year, almost nine months, with no cricket to speak of.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) happily pays Steve Tikolo and Co a good enough salary to live on.

But at the moment most of their time is spent in the nets bowling at each other.

Kenya's coach is Andy Moles, the former Warwickshire opener, who has at least engineered a tour of the West Indies for his men, in the domestic Carib Beer tournament.

Speaking to BBC Sport from Barbados, three-quarters of the way through a tour which has been an important learning experience, Moles is thankful his players have played four-day cricket for the first time.

My appeal to everybody is that we need to play more cricket Andy Moles

He says: "In the one-day game the batsmen can concentrate for an hour-and-a-half but to stay in for three or four sessions is more difficult for them.

"Surprisingly, the wickets have been slow and low - all the batsmen are eventually getting out caught in the covers and things. But the more cricket we are playing the better we get."

Afterwards, Kenya will then spend another six months kicking their heels in the run-up to the ICC Champions Trophy in England.

"The ICC are aware of our problem," says Moles.

"But the problem is they have a 10-year plan which means all the Test-playing nations are playing a lot of cricket all the time.

"We are now asking individual boards if we can play against A-sides or against some of the counties in England."

The Caribbean tour has seen Kenya, many of whose World Cup players were over the age of 30, blood four or five players under the age of 22.

Moles is still targeting next year as a possible entry date for Kenya into the Test arena.

In South Africa, Kenya's momentum sucked in a new fan base

But when it happens, he would prefer them to be in a second tier.

"We should play with Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and another new Test nation.

"It wouldn't be full Test status, but when you see how Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have struggled recently you cannot imagine the sponsors rushing to support some of these matches.

"But the four countries in the second tier would strengthen by playing more competitive cricket rather than being on the wrong end of a good hiding every time."

In Moles's vision, every three years the top team in the second tier would play against the bottom team in the top tier.

And if they were good enough they could then play against the big boys.

For now though it's a plane journey from Bridgetown to St Vincent and the final stages of the Carib Beer competition.