Dainty not about to resign

Gladstone Dainty: not about to step down © Cricinfo

For the first time since the ICC issued its statement canceling Project USA, Gladstone Dainty, the USACA president, has spoken. In a one-on-one interview with Deb K Das, Dainty explained his position. Here are some highlights from the interview.

Resignation Dainty emphasized that he and the executive had not been officially asked to resign - not by the ICC, nor the USACA board, nor by any one who had the authority to ask them to do so. To unilaterally resign under public pressure would be a betrayal of his responsibilities, and he was not about to take that route. He would continue to perform his duties to the best of his ability, would wait for developments in US cricket to sort themselves out, and let the chips fall where they may.

ICC-USACA relations Dainty stressed that he had a "profound respect" for ICC as an institution, and a clear understanding of its role in world cricket and its relationship with USACA. "After all, ICC is the parent, and USACA is [its] child". He felt that the relationship had soured in recent months because of a "lack of understanding" on the part of some ICC officials of the issues facing US cricket, and their acting without considering all the consequences involved.

As an example, there were several key issues he had brought up before the ICC that needed to be resolved in order for USACA to be "comfortable" with the Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU), that was being offered by the ICC. Instead, he had been confronted with the "take-it-or-leave-it" ultimatum from the ICC's Ehsan Mani and Malcolm Speed. The USACA's board of directors had discussed this at length, and forwarded their views on the MOU in detail to the ICC. But the ICC had chosen to suspend Project USA, something that. Dainty considered a "slap in the face".

Dainty, however, felt that the relationship between the USACA and the ICC would continue once these outstanding problems were resolved. There was too much history, and too much to be gained on all sides, for the relationship to be summarily terminated by either side. The USACA, especially, was keen to meet all its future commitments to the ICC and world cricket, and would continue to try to do so.

Project USA Dainty repeated several points he had made in his first interview with Cricinfo on October 24. He was worried that Project USA could drain funds from the US market, and take them "off-shore", and wanted safeguards to ensure this would not happen. There were also legal and tax issues that he wanted clarified. Dainty questioned the timing and the peremptory attitude of the ICC, and wondered aloud if there were factors unconnected with US cricket that were driving ICC priorities. He refused to speculate on what these might be, but dismissed the suggestion that he was being overly paranoid.

US ProCricket A working agreement had been signed with US ProCricket, and approved by the USACA board of directors. A properly run ProCricket could bring immediate returns to US cricketers; they had been previously denied participation in ProCricket, and could now benefit from their programs. Dainty had also come around to the view that ProCricket's modified Twenty20 format was the best vehicle for promoting cricket to Americans, while Project USA's proposed 50-over ODIs would appeal to the US immigrant market. There was no reason why ProCricket, the ICC, Project USA and USACA could not work together, and he hoped this would eventually be the case.

Champions Trophy corruption charges The investigation had not proceeded as Dainty had first hoped. The main problem was money. Available information was anecdotal, and major investigative work was needed to ferret out all the facts. Investigators had been approached about conducting inquiries, but their fees were high. Dainty was not sure that the information justified the expense, but was still open to suggestions on how such an investigation could proceed.

Communications and transparency Dainty admitted that he, and the USACA, had not done a good job of communications-- within the USACA, with the board, and with the public at large. He saw this as a situation to be remedied, and promised that he would try to improve this in the immediate future. He would welcome ICC's recommendations, as well as assistance via Project USA or any other vehicle, to upgrade this aspect of USACA activities. He was hoping for constructive assistance from ICC on all organizational topics--in his view, this rather than ultimatums was what he was hoping to receive from ICC for the benefit of US cricket.