US cricket continues to lack accountability

Silence continues to be the order of the day in the USA where it is proving impossible to find out how the review of the constitution is progressing. Cricinfo has learned that the process has stalled, and it seems that...

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And who are these "exasperated stakeholders"? The more this USACA farce goes on the more I'm beginning to see the blame is with the ENTIRE ex-pat cricket community in this country. These "stakeholders" continue to gripe...and then
send players to USACA sanctioned tournaments. They gripe...and send their kids to USACA sanctioned junior tournaments. They gripe.... and pay their thirty bucks to the USACA. They gripe...but won't resign their positions in the
USACA. Have said it over and over: all the cricket community in this country has to do is abandon the USACA...but they WON'T!

Someone have to bring resolution , matter of fact is that there are so many inspiring youngsters in all parts of USA that its totally unfair on them not to be seen on international level. Egos have to be kept aside , every responsible member have to take honest action now . Don't let the youngsters suffer otherwise it will be too difficult to inspire any individuals again .
I hope words like- Ethics, Honesty ,Team work still exists.

Case and point, at the recent U19 Nationals in Fl. The SER Regional Director strong-armed the team away from the coach, manager and captain. He then dismissed the captain and VC 48 hours before the start of the tournament and appointed an inexperienced youngster as captain.

This appointee was allegedly from an area where he needed votes and support for him to remain in his position. Needless to say the SER team was in disarray and was badly beaten in a match everyone confidently felt they could have won. This individual then proceeded to assist his on-field captain by shouting field setting and choosing who bowls from off the field. The batting order was done in the same manner. After three overs the SER team was 3 wkts for 1 run. Professionalism wasn't the order of the day.

The cloak-and-dagger strong tactics likens to a dictatorship. This fight for power and position is what drives these people with no regard what is best for the players, be it youth or adult. Cricket in the USA will never improve in standard until the ICC swallows some pride and cleans its USACA house.

The continuing chaos at the administrative top of the game in the USA is in grotesque, ironic contrast to what is happening everywhere at the grassroots level here. As other posters suggest, and has been stated many times elsewhere, the game is expanding fast at the adult level, and making good progress at the youth level. The ICC (revealed this week -- yet again -- to be an organization with many flaws of its own) is failing miserably by allowing a situation in which an expanding national game misses out on opportunities, and is also failing to take the opportunities the growth of cricket in the US offers the sport in general and the ICC itself in particular. How much longer can this nonsense continue? Surely a little self-interest will lead the ICC to ensure that something like sanity prevails here?

These horror stories of politics seem incomprehensible, even with us used to the machinations of the ICC & its constituent boards... surely the ICC should threaten to permanently derecognise USACA and cut these top-level petty gravy-train-riding officials out of the game.

USACA will continue to strong arm as long as we let them be in power. I say out with the old and form two organizations. East & West. Then have competitions between the two in neutral venues. At the recent U19 championships the strong arm tactics were introduced so that the NY region can win the championship. There were no trophies presented except for some cheap medals handed out. After which at the hotel three of the kids got arrested for partying and fined almost $20,000 by the local law. Games were held in pouring rain altering the run rate. You name it, they did it. Totally uncontrollable, appalling conditions to have nationals.

Get the current executives out. Just throw them out. Power hungry that is what they are.

Angry Player

"Thank you sir...may I have another!" Just look at at the photos of the latest USACA U-19 tourny. There they are: the U-19 trophy winners smiling and shaking hands with...who else? Dainty himself! UNBELIEVABLE! How would ANYONE enter a tournament organized by someone who's personal actions is preventing you from playing in any ICC sanctioned event!

The stakeholders are silent because they are hoping for a last ditch effort by their representatives. We are all tired of these old tricks from the same dogs of USACA. It's high time that we all denounce our membership and break away from USACA as the last resort.

Are we willing to make some sacrifices? This people will never change and they know that ICC does not have any balls to do anything. They just are fronting West Indies Cricket Board and Dainty is friends with them and they are not going to do anything as they do not have any interest in developing anything in USA. Its time for all the Concerned Cricketers to wake up and break these shakels of USACA .

THE TIME IS NOW. I am really sick and tired of these people who have no scruples whatsoever. They have destroyed the dreams of many young promising cricketers. Yes breaking away will cause some problems in beginning but if we all come together then we can run our own tournaments with local support in each region.

Please let us come together and talk. Time is running out and we all need to let ICC know that we do not want any part of USACA.

Ay, Ay "timmyj", I hear you. Not only Dainty was there, but he came late and spent the entire time in the NY camp without considering the impact that would cause the other teams. It was clear from the get go that NY would be the champions. He carried on with arrogance. What a shame. Ultimately at the expense of the kids. Arrangements were horrible to say the least.

I will never play in a tournament like this again.

Angry Player

Cricket is not for USA and vice versa.

And to think many people (ICC included) chased MLC out of town all that time ago, even though they had valid development plans for the game, and despite being ripped off by a supposed sponsor.

I guess it's true that what you reap you shall sow, and the short-comings of the USACA will continue to be felt until such time as cricketers in the country stand up and say 'No'

We have been having this same old discussion now for over 4 years since I got involved with youth cricket. I very quickly found out that this is the culture of cricket in USA. The general rule is that you are governed by people you choose as your leaders. You can not blame USACA, because , every region operates on the same " principals " as USACA.

There is no accountability. No one seems to care about cricket or youth cricket in USA. Unfortunately we are dealing with individuals, who forget that this is USA. Things here can be done differently. You do not have to hide behind fake names. People talk about changing the structure, but no one has their real names in this blog.

What are you afraid off? If you look at individual regions and I for sure can tell you for my region ( SCCA) , the business is run just like USACA. Selection of players for national tournaments is usually based on selector's personal liking. Elections for board executives are held not too different than USACA. There are 4 or 5 individuals who control the whole show. They chair all committees. They threaten you, intimidate you and in case of SCCA, may let you play at Woodley Park if you wag your tail behind them.

We spent around $9000 to send under 19 team to Florida and this very blog is telling me the situation there was horrific. How long we are going to do this? Why no one can change things? I think these are hard questions. We need to change the culture. We need to privatize cricket in USA. We have to bring 20/20 format to cricket. We have to find transparent individuals, who are not looking at cricket for way to fulfill their small egos. We need leadership that can be proud of the work they do.

Every executive should be accountable for their wrong doing and every one who does some thing positive for cricket should be rewarded. I am still hopeful that we can move forward. I do not think cricket has improved in USA. More people are playing now, because , more immigrants are here. I do not see any structure in place to spread cricket in a organized way and there is nothing on the horizon at this time.
Long Live Cricket.

Mr.Asif why don't you change then. look like you have all the answer to the problems and seem to be center of attention. You talk like next Prezi of USA.

Mr.Fan
We will make every effort to change the system towards better, but I can not promise that I will be the President of USA. Your support however will be appreciated to promote youth cricket.

It is totally injustice toward young cricketers in USA.we are aware of too many partizans are doing a lot of catastrophe in USA for nothing rather then their own interest. Look at the Bangladesh Cricket League at New York, It started ten years ago with a few teams and now their league is running with 22 teams and very smoothly. I spoke with Bangladesh Cricket Association Of North America inc.(BCANA)President , he is very optimistic about BCANA in Future.They don't get any help from USACA or any zonal help from east coast niether they get help from Park for the ground. They take the ground from Mr.Lesly ( president) of commonwealth cricket league but they got real help from the Bangladeshi community and the bussiness people.Their league is discplined and well organized and adimitted by the Guyana's umpires and players. I think USACA should contact with the President Of Bcana and If any one to contact with them please visit the bcana website.
www.bcana.com

Fellas, have patience. There will be a new system in place within a few months. Everything will fall in place after the Nationals. It will make you proud.

The best Cricket is played on the NY Region, producing the best young talent in the nation. Our win in the U19 Nationals proves my point. There might be some talented individuals in CA, but the best team is out of New York. Case and Point to be noted. No matter how many youth clinics you guys have in the country it's the guts of these young players that show mettle in the big games when they do count. Hats off to NY and to the people who run it. Champions for years to come.

Fellas: You needs more leagues in Southern Calfornia. The whole region is control by SCCA. What do you expect ?

Regional Director,
If New York is the best part of the country for cricket, why can't I easily find information about joining a team? I live across the river in Jersey City, and am happy to go to New York (any of the five boroughs, Long Island, Westchester) to play.
I'm part of that supposed holy grail of American cricket, a US-born non-Asian who loves the game and wants to play and spread the good word of cricket. One of the major gripes about cricket in the US is that it's played exclusively by ex-pats and their children. I'm the target market; why is it so hard to play?

We are having all these problems because the Executives (President, VP etc) and BODs have no term-limits. Let us put a term-limit as part of the constitution. ICC has one, BCCI has one and most of the boards have term limits. Why not USACA???

Well, this new constitution draft still has lots of flaws but it looks like its better than the previous ones. Most importantly, the five executive USACA board members (pres., vps, sec, tres.) will now be elected by
representatives of each league, rather than the
regional directors as in the past, so looks like
the CLP have got their way.

Big losers are regional directors who are no longer on the
BOD. They're replaced by regional reps. Says the BOD nominee with the majority is elected but doesn't say what happens if no nominee gets a majority. Also has a
bunch of confusing points. Says honorary members
can't vote but doesn't tell us if life members
can. Associate members (schools, colleges)
can't vote and can't become full members. Why
would anyone be an associate member? Says
(X:4) BOD members must be elected by March 31.
Then says (XXI:1) must be elected by Nov. 30.
Says BOD won't manage day-to-day activities of
USACA but if you look at the responsibilities of the
secretary and treasurer hard to see how this
won't be the case.

Nominations should be posted for each position on the website and each league cast's it's vote for the right Candidate. Elected by Majority rather than Regional Director. No Current Executive or Regional Director is eligible for nomination.

I played the under 19 tournament in Florida representing the North West region this year. I got a first hand experience at the tournament and I have to say I disagree with most people here about how the under 19 tournament was run.

I felt that the tournament was pretty well organized and the organizers didn't seem to favor a particular team ie. New York Region. They must be given credit where it is due. The tournament was played in Florida where weather wasn't the most supportive but still the grounds were in good shape and the turf pitch played well even though there was rain.

I understand that USA teams can't play in ICC sanctioned events and that being an under 19 player specially hurts me and I hope that this gets cleared up as soon as possible. Seeing the improvement of this years u 19 competition compared to last years (where NW region won) gives me hope that US cricket is headed in the right direction.

Furthermore, based on this U-19 tournament you can not say that President Dainty favored the New York Region. The region won because they were well prepared and played two solid days of cricket and not because of political reasons.

U19 player, comments like these will not get you to play for USA (Stop Patronizing). You must be playing in another tournament in Florida at the same time. Or these comments have been written pretending as a player. Concentrate on your game and improve it rather getting into political aspects of it. Simply put play cricket on the field not on websites. All the best player. Your written english is too good for an U19 player. Especially for a minor.

Hi Coach; That was little harsh for a young player who is willing to voice his opinion. You have no proof that this was not written by under 19 player. You are implying that all under 19 players are not smart enough to read and write English. people like you are the problem and are guilty of discouraging youngsters to participate in building future of cricket in US. You owe an apology to this young player and learn to encourage young players. With this kind of attitude, I will never ask you to coach cricket to any young players in US.

hey Ashif, I might be harsh on the kid but that is the way I coach. Read my posting, I said play on the field. Kids need to concentrate on the playing surface. These forums are not for kids to write about. A good Cricketer is one who understands the game and plays the game the way it should be. If the kid writes he is not building the future of USA. None of the kids that I coach will ever do anything like this. Maybe from your team. If you need a coach call me 212-371-1580. I coach for free.
I owe an apology to you not the kid. I apologize to you for being rude cause you deserve it. You fool. Young players should not voice their opinion. I have all the proof I need, I was there at the tournament.

Coach: I could not believe that you wrote " young players should not voice there opinion" That is a stone age as well as slave driving mentality. I hope you are willing to change, if you really wanted to make some progress here in US in cricket. Your statement is terrifying.

Yes, I agree that for cricket to develop incrementally in the U.S.A,there is a need for people who are dedicated and can change things around.These people must be transparent individuals, who are not looking at cricket for ways to fulfil their small ego.We need leadership so that we can move forward. Sometime ago,I suggested two cricketers,Dr.Sunil Ramlall and Dr.Tariq Samad from the Minnesota Falcons team.These two gentlemen have exceptionally successful track records at management level and have demonstrated success in leading programmes that have helped organizations to meet their institutional objectives.Dr.Sunil Ramlall, a Professor,has presented papers on areas related to strategic planning,revenue generation and organizational behavior.He has distinguished himself as a leader with strong skills in management.He is currently the Captain of the Falcons cricket team of Minnesota.
I strongly recommend that these gentlemen be included in the efforts to establish cricket as one of the major sports in the U.S.A.
Thank you.