Battle for control of US cricket hot up

A week after the two factions battling for control of US cricket met, what actually happened is slowly beginning to emerge.

The meeting of the official board, headed by Gladstone Dainty, was an uneventful affair and the new committee which resulted was published on the USA Cricket Association's website last week.

What was of more interest was the rival extraordinary general meeting, called, according to its organisers, in line with the rules of the USACA but not recognized by the official board. The turnout was always going to be of interest, and it is believed that over 300 proxy votes were received, which, if correct, would represent a large majority of USACA-affiliated clubs within the country and give the CLP a mandate which would be hard to ignore.

Encouraged by such overwhelming support, theCouncil of Cricket League Presidents (CLP) has now taken the first steps towards establishing a formal identity in US cricket.

Until very recently, the CLP has existed only on paper, acknowledged by a single line in the Constitution of the USA Cricket Association. Now it has emerged on the US cricket scene as a formal organization with its own website, its own program, and an agenda crafted by its own organizers.

The groundwork for the new CLP was laid during the recent dispute over the 2005 USACA elections, when Veman Reddy, one of the candidates who won his poll, was disqualified by the USACA executive. At a meeting convened in Dallas, delegates of a substantial majority of US cricket leagues, representing most active cricketers in the USA, voted unanimously to re-confirm Reddy as their chairman, passed a series of resolutions expressing no confidence in the executive if the USACA, and voted for drastic reforms in USACA's structure and governance. That meeting was dismissed by the USACA executive.

One of the first objectives of the CLP was to encourage the holding of an extraordinary meeting of the USACA on a scale that had never been attempted before. Under the USACA constitution, one-third of all member clubs are required to convene an EGM not called by its officers. The size of the country made this a logistical nightmare, but against the odds, this was done and the officially notarized attendance at the EGM showed that for the first time in USACA history, some 80% of member clubs had shown up or sent proxy votes.

The role of the CLP could become vital in the coming months. Whereas until now opponents of the USACA have largely been dismissed as dissidents, the CLP is an independent body, based on the 30-odd cricket leagues operating around the USA that are the major stakeholders in US cricket. In the past, few CLP members have taken an active interest in the national politics of US cricket, preferring to leave such esoteric matters to those who had the stomach for them.

But the ICC's termination of Project USA made many league presidents question how their interests were being represented at the national level. The disqualification of Reddy and subsequent actions against the so-called dissidents galvanized the CLP into action.

The immediate issue facing the CLP is how to establish its independent credentials with the ICC. The CLP retained legal counsel, and its lawyers sent a carefully crafted letter to the ICC's Ehsan Mani, Malcolm Speed and Malcolm Kennedy. The lawyers pointed out that the EGM of June 4 had unanimously voted to declare the USACA elections as null and void, and also asked that the ICC not recognize the nomination of the persons put forward as the USA's representatives to the ICC annual conference later this month. Finally, it was urged that until new elections were held and a new executive appointed, the ICC should suspend all payments to the USACA.