USA thrown back into the dark ages

The long-awaited extraordinary meeting of the USA Cricket Association which was hoped to finally end the bitter dispute between the association and the Council of League Presidents and pave a way ahead for US cricket was a farce that never got underway.

The attendance on Saturday [December 10] was so poor that there were not enough people present to constitute a forum, and furthermore, only six of the 12 USACA directors turned up, so it was not even possible to hold a official board meeting.

The signal that this sends to the cricket world in general, and the ICC in particular, will further damage the already shredded reputation of the USACA as a credible outfit with the right to run the game in the US. If it cannot even muster a quorum for such a vital meeting, then its claims to speak for the country's stakeholders must be called into doubt.

Much of the blame for the shambles in Dallas must lie with the USACA. An organisation whose utter lack of communication skills are well known, it failed to advertise the meeting on its own website, and while it claims to have advised all leagues, it was clear that many clubs were unaware of the arrangements, while others only found out at the 11th hour.