Now, you can get all the USA Cricket updates via Facebook.   Also follow us on Twitter via @dreamcricket

By Peter Della Penna (on Twitter)

Judge Lucy Koh’s appeal to both sides in the Varadarajan v. USACA court case to come to a resolution has fallen on deaf ears according to court documents filed today at U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. A motion hearing was held Thursday after which both sides were asked by the judge to negotiate a settlement without her having to intervene.

According to documents filed on Friday, USACA President Gladstone Dainty issued a declaration document in which he states that he asked the USACA board if they would “voluntarily consent to adjourn the election scheduled for April 14, 2012 by 30 days” and whether or not the board would agree that “the independent auditor has the authority to determine questions of eligibility to vote”. Dainty stated that the board responded “No” to both questions by a 7-3 vote.

Lawyers representing Ram Varadarajan and the California Cricket Academy filed a statement to inform that they approached USACA after Thursday’s court hearing and made a formal proposal to resolve the dispute. The document starts off by stating that, “During yesterday’s hearing on Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, the Court acknowledged what appeared to be election irregularities and suspicious activity. However, before ruling on Plaintiffs’ motion, the Court asked the parties to meet and confer in an effort to resolve their dispute.”

Among the items included in the Varadarajan proposal to resolve the dispute were: a 45-60 day postponement of the election to ensure certainty and a final resolution; agreeing on the appointment of a CPA from one of the big four accounting firms to serve as the auditor; accepting a proposal that the “top six criteria” from the Robert Chance compliance audit serve as a way to determine “substantial compliance” by which the independent auditor would then review evidence to determine if a league is eligible to vote; agreeing to make the independent auditor’s ruling final and binding with no more appeals available.

“For reasons we do not understand, USACA refused this reasonable, sensible and principled accommodation,” writes David Marroso, attorney for Varadarajan and CCA. “Instead, USACA insists that its self-interested determination and supposedly impartial ‘appellate committee’ already acted as independent decision makers. However, two (of five) members of that committee publicly excoriated the committee as fraudulent, corrupt and a sham. These two members have ‘no dog in the fight,’ for they are Presidents of leagues allowed to vote—yet what they saw happening was so disturbing they have publicly criticized the unfair process.”

The court documents include emails from both Minnesota Cricket Association President Masaood Yunus and Northwest Cricket League President Faizan Janjua which are critical of the USACA appeals process from which they sat on. Janjua’s email was published Thursday on DreamCricket.com.

Also included in the documents as an exhibit is an email chain between USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board President Avinash Varma and newly elected Atlantic Region representative to the USACA board Keith Gill. Varma’s documents show that he is the elected president of the WMCB, yet claims that Gill has usurped his power and falsely claimed to be the president of the WMCB by signing a notary public in order to obtain the league’s voting ballot for the USACA general elections.

“This is a blatant misrepresentation and will have legal ramifications,” writes Varma. Mohamed had written to Varma stating that President Dainty and the rest of the USACA board would take a vote to determine who was the legitimate president of the WMCB. If Gill, a known Dainty ally, were to be acknowledged by the USACA board as the WMCB president, it would overrule the wishes of 14 of the 16 WMCB clubs who held a meeting reaffirming their vote to recognize Varma as the president of the league.

“The President of USACA has NO business interfering in WMCB matters,” writes Varma. “WMCB clubs have spoken and USACA has no choice but to accept their decision. Period.”