ICC offer accepted by rival board

Members of the alternative board of the USA Cricket Association have quickly agreed to the offer made by Malcolm Speed, the ICC chairman, for binding arbitration by the ICC to try to resolve the disputes in the association

The letter was followed by a message of support from the Council of League Presidents, who had unanimously elected Polam Reddy as their Chairman at their meeting in Dallas on April 16.

So far, there is no information on whether the official board, led by Gladstone Dainty, have accepted Speed's offer.

The letter reads, in part: "We ... welcome the initiative by the ICC to resolve this issue in USACA. ..and we are in complete agreement with [having] the Disputes Resolution Committee resolve the current stalemate.... This Committee needs to look into the Constitutionality of a number of decisions made by the Board of Directors and the current executives since the time elections were announced in 2004... a majority of the members of [USACA] have expressed a lack of confidence in the present governing body and have also asked for the resignation of the Executives...We look forward to hearing back on the process and timeline for ICC to set this in motion."

The letter is signed by Laks Sampath (North West), Syed Shahanawaz (Central West), Arjunan Ethiveerasingam (South West), Milford Lewis (New York), Nafis Ahmad (North East elect), Poolam Reddy (Chairman Council of League Presidents. ) Of these six, Ahmad and Reddy were disqualified from the elections by Dainty and his associates although they both secured the most votes in their respective constituencies.

The supporting letter from the Council of League Presidents reads, in part: "We wholeheartedly welcome the decisions of ICC to offer the services of [the] Dispute Resolutions Committee. As you already know by now the League President's Council had a meeting in Dallas on April 16, 2005....We would like to hereby request that the Dispute Resolutions Committee should look into the flawed electoral process that recently concluded.... the League President's Council have resolved to requisition through their clubs an Extra Ordinary General Meeting of the members on June 4...2005. [and we] ...request that a representative from ICC be present at this Extra Ordinary General Meeting."

It is not known whether the ICC will send a representative to the June 4 meeting.