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By Venu Palaparthi
For cricketers across America, 2012 was a year that held a lot of
promise but it was also a year in which the occasional bright spots were
eclipsed by an unresponsive cricket administration.
USACA began the year with a successful player camp
in Fort Lauderdale. Players praised the camp calling it the best run
USACA camp since the one held in December 2009 ahead of the 2010 ICC
World Twenty20 Qualifier. “Unfortunately lack of planning, lack of
management skills has probably cost us a lot. We have started now on a
positive note,” Ahmed Jeddy, chair of the USACA cricket committee said.
With that, the bouquets for USACA’s administrators ended. As the winter turned to spring, USACA made some perplexing moves that will undoubtedly haunt the organization for some time to come.
“This year, voting is more than just the core responsibility of
citizenship; it is an act of defiance against malicious political forces
determined to reduce access to democracy,” noted The New York Times in
an editorial column titled ‘The Struggle to Cast a Vote’ ahead of the
USA presidential election. “Public outcry, with support from the
courts, may eventually remove these threats to democracy.”
Alas, the cricket community could not accomplish what a nation of 311
million could. Neither the public outcry nor the courts succeeded in
protecting the democratic process from a compliance process that began
for all the right reasons but ended up being used as a tool for
disenfranchisement.
The much awaited USACA election in April comprising only 15 leagues
was about as inclusive as you might expect in a tin-pot regime
masquerading as a democracy.
As expected, the election delivered power into the hands of Gladstone
Dainty and his friends. If anyone thought that USACA would now focus
on the job of rebuilding, having freed itself of the distractions of a
pesky opposition, they were proved wrong. USACA proceeded to underwhelm
on nearly every front.
On the membership front, expressing disappointment that only around
one third of USACA’s membership was in good standing, USACA issued a media release
in which it promised to help leagues become compliant. USACA ended
the year with an even smaller membership and now has just four
functioning regions and 12 leagues in good standing. By DreamCricket.com's estimate, over 705 hard-ball cricket clubs or teams in the US operate outside of the USACA framework.
On the administrative front, a quick look at USACA’s 100-Day Plan
which was announced in May offers every MBA student a lesson on why it
is important NOT to set expectations that one cannot realistically
meet. Not satisfied with falling behind on its initial 100-day plan
goals, USACA set itself additional goals on October 5, 2012, when it promised "coaching
sessions and high performance clinics will be conducted by Robin Singh
within 45 days" of the press release. In the same release, USACA announced that "preparation [for ICC Division 3 tournament and ICC World Cup Qualifiers] will be complete within 45 days from the date of this press release." Like many previous USACA promises, these too were quickly forgotten.
On
the tournament front, by February, it was clear that USA was not in a
position to host the ICC WCL Division Four tournament.
Pic (Right) - Screengrab from USACA website. All national fixtures scheduled for 2012 were cancelled.
At
the national level, USACA’s U-17 tournament was first postponed, then
cancelled. All other national tournaments - USACA Women's
National Tournament, the U-15 National Tournament, and the U-19 National
Tournament - met with the same fate. The men’s national mutated into
an East-West ‘shuffle’ comprising one 50-over match and a trial T20.
The
few tournament opportunities for the players were courtesy of the ICC.
There were also a few successful independent tournaments organized by
the New York Public Schools Athletic League, American Cricket
Federation, American College Cricket and Cricket Council USA, but hardly
any from USACA.
Financially, the promised CHA millions are yet to arrive and recent
news reports point to a potential divide between CHA and USACA. Even
more distressing, USACA exited the year with more lawsuits than ever
before.
On the field, inadequate tournament preparations notwithstanding,
Team USA did the country proud. At the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier,
USA finished 12th with three wins
in nine games. However, the wins were notable because they came against
Bermuda, Oman and Scotland, teams that are currently ranked higher than
USA on the World Cricket League ladder.
The following month, the USA Women were unlucky
to be edged out of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier on net run
rate as rain washed out their final against Canada in the ICC Americas
Division One tournament held in the Cayman Islands.
In July, USA took part in the ICC Americas U-18 Match Play Camp with
each team - Bermuda, Canada and USA - playing four matches. Canada
finished at the top of the table after accumulating the most points
based on the bonus point structure of the event. USA did well to win their last two matches as the boys began to understand each other’s strengths and gel as a team.
September took USA to the ICC WCL Division Four event in Malaysia where USA conducted a successful campaign and regained their place in Division Three, thus keeping USA’s hopes alive for 2015 World Cup qualification.
Pic (above) - USA celebrates on a damp Bayuemas Oval after gaining
promotion to next year's ICC WCL Division Three in Bermuda. [Courtesy:
Peter Della Penna/DreamCricket.com]
While the players did reasonably well, it was clear that with better
preparation and planning, they could have done even better. In fact, at
the end of the ICC Americas U-18 Match Play Camp, USA U-18 coach Mumtaz
Yusuf said, “There’s a lot of work to be done. We need to have the
team together for a longer period of time if you want to really
succeed.” Golden words, but quickly forgotten by USACA. Nothing was
done for the remainder of 2012 for USACA's junior development teams and
no plans have been announced as we enter 2013.
In the good news category, though the much talked about USA T20
league was pushed back to 2013,
the two T20 matches featuring West Indies and New Zealand helped to
improve Lauderhill’s reputation as an international cricket venue.
Cricket continues to thrive at the grassroots without the input from the
national board. The number of hard ball and soft ball cricket leagues
in USA is estimated to have crossed 100. The US Youth Cricket
Association has successfully
scaled
its operations and continues to introduce cricket to schools at a
faster rate than ever before. More academies and indoor practice
facilities have opened in 2012 than in any single year in history. At
the college level, American College Cricket now has affiliated clubs in
over 50 colleges and its championships are televised on TV Asia.
Several leading brands associated with the sport, including ESPN,
MoneyGram, and MetLife, have made initial forays into USA.
Cricket in the USA now finds itself at a fork in the road. Years of
intrigue and divisive politics have made the nation’s cricketers
insular. Many are unconvinced about the benefits of associating with
each other and it remains to be seen if recent efforts by ACF to
galvanize the leagues will prove successful.
Meanwhile, USACA’s recent track record has not exactly enhanced its
prestige. In fact, USACA’s influence over cricket has faded to the
point of irrelevance. USACA’s future relies heavily on the lifeline of
ICC recognition and good news emanating from CHA.
Fittingly, the best news and the most positive quote for USACA came
on the last day of 2012. “I look forward to leading USACA’s national
efforts, as well as working closely with the member leagues, clubs
[underlined for emphasis] and partners to ensure cricket’s vast
potential in the US is realized,” the newly appointed CEO Darren Beazley
is quoted as saying.
USA's cricket community hopes that Mr. Beazley will work closely with
all leagues. If he has followed USA cricket lately, he should know that
there are hardly any member leagues left.
Here's wishing everyone a better 2013.