Battle lines drawn heading into USACA AGM

The USA Cricket Association's Annual General Meeting takes place on Saturday in New York City at a time when emotions are running high for stakeholders around the country. Front and center on this weekend's agenda is a vote to ratify an amended USACA constitution. The result will speak volumes about who holds the power for steering the future of cricket in the country.

US cricketers and administrators have often been accused of being apathetic toward affairs involving governance, most recently by Atlantic Region administrator Shelton Glasgow. In the wake of USA's relegation two weeks ago to ICC WCL Division Four, players and administrators have been more vocal in expressing their views on the lack of support the organization has provided members, bringing more attention to the desire for change in how the game is governed in the USA.

Just what kind of changes are deemed necessary depends on which side of the fence you're on. More than a half-dozen prominent representatives of the national team, plus administrators like Glasgow, think change should involve the removal of executive USACA board members including president Gladstone Dainty.

On the flip side, Dainty supporters like USACA vice president Michael Gale and Northern California Cricket Association president Sunil Kumar are staunch advocates of the current executive remaining in power to right their own wrongs. For them, change equates to revisions in the constitution - authorizing a slimmed-down decision-making authority by eliminating the majority of voting rights for member leagues and redirecting that power into the hands of the incumbent executive. Despite the mounting pressure from those dissatisfied with the current regime, Dainty has an outstanding record in voting processes and the odds are stacked in his favor to receive the necessary two-thirds majority of yes votes for the proposed changes to the constitution to be ratified.

Some observers may wonder what a revised USACA constitution would look like. USACA has not made its proposed constitutional revisions accessible in public domains, like its own website. According to a USACA source, an updated constitutional draft was distributed to member leagues in October with a cover page that included the text "Adopted November 2014," even though nothing yet has been officially voted upon. What has been made public by USACA, though, is an announcement on the AGM meeting agenda that fresh elections will occur within "60 days after the ratification of the Constitution," but the same promise for fresh elections is not made if the proposed changes are voted down.

The vote on the constitution will be decided by USACA member leagues. At the time of the last USACA election in 2012, only 15 leagues were eligible to vote while another 32 were deemed ineligible due to being classified as members "not in good standing". On Wednesday, a USACA source provided an email sent out by a USACA administrator announcing a list of 40 league members eligible to vote at the AGM, but the email includes no information about how 16 of the 40 leagues regained eligibility to vote which they didn't have two years ago. Among the 16 are two leagues, Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board and Florida Southeast Cricket League, that have since left USACA to join the American Cricket Federation, which makes their appearance on the list all the more curious.

Also on the list are 10 leagues that were unrecognized by USACA prior to 2012. According to the current USACA constitution, leagues are required to apply for membership status and must go through a probationary period that can last anywhere from 12 to 24 months. Such leagues are not eligible to vote in that time frame. Each league must then go through an approval process by the USACA board to attain full member status including voting rights. Nothing is mentioned in any USACA board meeting minutes since 2012 about 10 new leagues applying for provisional associate member status, let alone confirming elevation to full membership.

Likewise, no information is included in any of USACA's board meeting minutes over the last two years regarding the 16 leagues who are now being welcomed back to vote on Saturday, except for a brief mention on March 23 in which Dainty requested that 11 leagues who had their voting status suspended in 2012 should be reinstated based solely on their ability to pay member subscription fees, and that reinstatement should be "fast-tracked" in time for these 11 leagues to vote on the revised constitution. This membership fee could also be deferred for 2014 in lieu of leagues providing evidence that they had budgeted equivalent money to be spent on local development projects rather than sending it to USACA.

Another topic on the agenda is the state of USACA's financial affairs. USACA schedules its annual AGM in November to fall outside of the non-profit filing deadline for US federal tax returns. As of 2012, USACA was more than $3 million in debt, but USACA's data for the 2013 financial year won't become public until after the constitutional vote occurs.

Whatever the outcome of Saturday's vote, the American Cricket Federation continues to apply pressure. After the 2012 election, many leagues defected and formed the new group, dissatisfied with USACA's governance. The ACF announced on Friday that they intend to form a shadow USA national team to rival the officially sanctioned USACA team that is recognized by the ICC. This is the same scenario which earned USA a suspension from the ICC in 2005.

The ICC put USA on warning at its annual meeting this year, and could potentially impose sanctions for the third time in a decade during its next annual meeting in June 2015. Regardless of ratification or rejection of USACA's constitutional proposals, governance will continue to be a hot topic for the foreseeable future in US cricket.