New United States secretary, Dr. Atul Rai, looks to the future (5 Dec 1999)

5 December 1999

New United States secretary, Dr. Atul Rai, looks to the future

Cricket in the United States can now look ahead following the unification of the sports' opposing administrative bodies. Here the new United States Cricket Association secretary, Dr. Atul Rai talks of the game's future prospects:

At a meeting of the board of directors of the USACA held on the 28th of August 1999,in New York, the following were appointed as the executive officers of the Association for a term of two years: President: Ricky Craig 1st Vice-President: Kamran Khan 2nd Vice-President: Selwyn Caesar Secretary: Dr Atul Rai Treasurer: Michael Miller (for more info on USACA please go to usaca.org)

The newly appointed members of the executive body understand that they have the daunting task of promoting and administering cricket in a country, which is about two and a half times the size of Western Europe and, where cricket is not yet a national sport and, where cricket as a sport is still fighting for a place among other well established disciplines such as American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey and of course the latest one being soccer.

Another issue that the US cricket administrators have been battling over the years has been that the American public had stayed away from the game, complaining that it went on for too long, specially the 3day,4day & 5day version of the game. The increasing popularity of the limited overs edition of the game has brought new hopes for the spread of the game in the US.

The Southern California Cricket Association (a member league within the USACA) started an ambitious program of cricket in the elementary schools in the Los Angeles area about 2 years ago and since then a similar program has been developed by the Northern California Cricket Assn. Currently there are about 2000 children involved in this program in California and the response to the program so far has been quite overwhelming. Because of its great success, the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles has provided grant funding for the program, for two years in a row. It would seem logical that such a program be expanded to cover the whole of the US in the next year or two, to build the grass roots cricket in America in the coming years. The US cricket administrators hope that the ICC will step forward with a helping hand in this endeavor. With the new ICC development committee headed by Ross Turner and John Shepherd as the Development Officer for the Americas, trying to find ways to promote cricket in the region, it is imperative that the resources and energies be directed towards promotion of the game in America, taking a cue from what FIFA did for soccer in the US and, consequently, to the game in the rest of the world.

There is no doubt that, in the next ten years, if cricket can find a place on the National television in America, it will have a significant impact on the revenues generated and on the game itself.

There is a long road ahead I am certainly optimistic."