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The farce of USA cricket

By Will last year, at the start of March Leave a comment on this post

While my boss has been on holiday wearing ridiculously coloured blazers, I’ve been entrusted with understanding cricket in America. It is a complete shambles.

The United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) were today suspended for failing to meet the deadlines imposed by the ICC who had insisted a new constitution was in place by March 1. They’d already been granted an extension from December 31 2006 but they still couldn’t sort things out.

In between all the administrative muddle came this story of Peter Whitehead.

To compound the depression, the administration’s incompetence is at odds with a country whose passion for the sport is nothing short of fervent. This was perfectly demonstrated by Peter Whitehead, a 12-year-old who wrote to us this week with damning evidence of the USACA’s ineptitude. Not yet in his teens, Peter is the president of a youth cricket club at his school in Mesa, Arizona. Quite reasonably, he expected some form of assistance from his country’s board, but the trail was long and fruitless. He spoke to the USACA who told him to contact his local representative, who in turn sent him to the Arizona director, who palmed him off to the California director, who palmed him back to the Arizona director. And so on.

Eventually, Peter’s path took him to Major League Cricket (MLC) who, for seven months, led him to believe they would help him. They didn’t. MLC have been around for seven years; they have fought to oust the USACA in that time, even approaching the ICC 12 months ago in a bid to formally replace the incumbents with an MLC constitution. Why didn’t they help? Unperturbed by the setbacks Peter approached Urban Cricket while on holiday with his family, several thousand miles away in England. The ECB-funded venture hand out kits to children in Britain, and they gave Peter and his club eight plastic bats and balls. The USACA have done nothing for this young, keen cricketer and his story is not uncommon. So much for Gladstone Dainty, its president, insisting that the “youth and female cricket programmes are the priorities of USACA”.

The response to Peter’s trials has been startling. People with similar experiences have shared their problems; advice has been offered; offers for kit, pitches and matches have been made. There is a genuine love of the game in the United States but enthusiasm from fans and players is just not enough. Strong leadership and professionalism is required and, at the moment, the USACA is worryingly bereft of both.

It’s a humbling story. As sides of questionable ability (but plenty of dosh) prepare for their World Cup next week, the USA - with such an enormous number of players and clubs - can’t even form a new constitution.

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13 Responses to “The farce of USA cricket”

  • Angus wrote:
    March 3rd, 2007 at 10.42 pm

    Doesn’t surprise me. I am astounded by some of the attitudes of cricket administrators in Canada. It starts in every team, where you can’t take the field because of bickering between opponents and even teammates. There are eleven captains in every side, and another five on the boundary. They can’t even cut the f@*king grass.

    When you have a sport that is segregated entirely along ethinic lines, this is what you get. Expect little funding from the government, little or no youth development, no team expansion, no fun, no agreements on the rules, a lot of arguing, chucking, and some very skewed umpiring. I don’t really know why anyone bothers to play, actually.

    It’s not all doom and gloom in every province, though. In the US, I can only imagine the problem is magnified a million-fold.

  • Bajan Cupid wrote:
    March 4th, 2007 at 4.03 pm

    The eyes of the cricket world has now shifted to the Caribbean and will remain in the Cariubbean until April 28 when the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 takes place.

    The Caribbean is the smallest region in the to ever hosted this tournament, the world’s third largest global games. The games will be played in nine countries- Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada,Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. With one visa (apply for it on ) cormto teh Caribbean, visit the nine countries plus Dominica and enjoy the best cricket world cup ever.

  • Justcoz wrote:
    March 5th, 2007 at 2.33 am

    Yes Will, US cricket is the province of inept opportunistic or corrupt. Worse than the old school tie, this is all about the payday that they believe will come merely with their own presence.

    The only fix is for the ICC to independently incorporate, and ask those interested to join them. Any of the existing officials are tainted, its time to bypass the lot.

  • Alan R wrote:
    March 5th, 2007 at 6.45 am

    It’s been obvious for a long time that the USACA is pathological, despite a few well-meaning members. There was an incident a few years ago where some members of the USA A team were stranded in Malaysia after a tournament because the USACA had made inadequate provision for their return home. I found a trace of it in cached google pages:

    http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:2CSKjbupvjAJ:www.uscricket.com/newsdetail.asp%3Fid%3D407%26news%3Dusnews%26category%3DUSACA+USA+players+stranded+in+Malaysia+cricket&hl=en&client=firefox-a&strip=1

    The ICC hasn’t exactly pushed for reform in the USACA. I guess their policy is to allow a lot of leeway to member nations, but they really should require higher standards than just passing a constitution on time.

  • Reverse Swing wrote:
    March 5th, 2007 at 6.21 pm

    I seem to remember that there was a proposal a couple of years ago to play a couple of these World Cup games in Florida. The USACA were very bullish about it (but then ‘bullish’ is something of a default setting for most things American) with talk of 20/30,000 crowds.

    Seems like the ICC dodged a bullet there.

  • Michael wrote:
    March 6th, 2007 at 7.39 pm

    I’m in the USA *and* on a cricket board who actually gets to receive the ridiculous emails and statements flying back and forth between various leagues and the USACA “office”.

    They’ve got no clue.

    They’ve also got no clue in selection.

    And those cricketers (particularly from the sub-continent) who continue to come to the USA and feel like they have a “shot” at making the US ODI team also have no clue.

  • Peter Whitehead wrote:
    March 9th, 2007 at 4.48 am

    Cricket here is very hard to get kids to participate in. First of all, the school I go to made it extremely difficult to start the club, and making even more difficult for me to organize games, who knew there were so many rules about a football field. Secondly, most kids in a junior high don’t join, because it’s not cool. I spend a lot of my time convincing people to come, especially girls, because their more willing to participate in an unknown sport (maybe it’s me as well I’d like to think so :).

  • justcoz wrote:
    March 9th, 2007 at 12.20 pm

    Peter - where are you located? There may be a local team that can help. In NY we have a number of )outh programs… I may know someone in yiur area.

  • Peter Whitehead wrote:
    March 9th, 2007 at 1.31 pm

    I am located in Arizona and I am working with one of our local teams. We’ll see if anything happens.
    Thanks anyways.

  • Angus wrote:
    March 10th, 2007 at 9.58 pm

    I find the key to getting kids playing for the first time is to get them playing in a playground, or against a fence or wall, so they don’t have to run far to fetch the ball. Having a couple of semi-skilled people on hand to show them how it’s done before they join in is essential.

    I’ve stepped out my car on the Polish plains, beside Slovenian churches in the Alps, and next to Romanian orphanages and had full games of cricket going among street kids within fifteen minutes, with only one word in each language. Kids will copy. You play a cover drive twice, they’ll watch it and do the same first time.

  • singh da man wrote:
    March 12th, 2007 at 12.31 pm

    West Indies kicked everyones ass during the early years of cricket when they won in twice in a row mich like ausralia have done when they won in 1999 and 2003 but however india stopped the west indies in 1983 from gainin a hat-trick of world cups and WE WILL STOP AUSSIES IN 2007!!

    JAI HIND!

  • West Ham Lenny wrote:
    April 27th, 2007 at 1.17 pm

    Cricket is a great game and I’m really pleased to hear that there’s so much enthusiasm for it over there, but if it is to ever take hold then the ICC MUST get more involved in the development side of the game in the US.
    I urge all of you who are involved in a club to inundate the ICC with letters,faxes,emails or carrier pigeons demanding that they deal with the problems there obviously are in the US or the gam ethere will be lost to another gener ation of young Americans and who knows, could even die out there.

  • justcoz wrote:
    April 27th, 2007 at 2.03 pm

    I doubt that cricket will “die out” here. It is successful on a club level in spite of the challenges. What will never happen is a successful US team.


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