ICC proposes USA Cricket Board resign as part of roadmap for Olympics certification

The ICC has initiated steps to "reset" and overhaul the leadership and governance structure at USA Cricket (USAC) at the behest of US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). The development comes as part of the need for USAC to secure national governing body (NGB) status from USOPC which is mandatory for all sports that were added to LA28 Games.

In 2023, cricket was among five new sports added to the LA28 roster by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) based on the large audience the sport generates, especially in the Indian sub-continent. As hosts, the USA are expected to be one of the six teams to contest for medals in both men's and women's categories. However, USAC is yet to satisfy all the norms set by USOPC to achieve NGB certification.

Having already warned USAC last July of serious implications, including the danger of being derecognised as the governing body for cricket in the US, the ICC has now rolled up its sleeves and laid out a "roadmap" in an email to USAC on July 10. That communication, sent by ICC general counsel Jonathan Hall, and accessed by ESPNcricinfo, comes nearly a week prior to the ICC AGM, which will be held in Singapore on July 20 where the ICC Board will discuss the USAC issue.

The roadmap, which comprises six steps, was drawn by the ICC's Normalisation Committee which coordinated with USOPC. The Normalisation panel, which is headed by ICC chair Jay Shah, met senior USAC top brass twice - first in April on an online call and then in Los Angeles in June. In both meetings, the USAC, which was represented by its chair Venu Pisike and CEO Johnathan Atkeison, was told of the chief concerns of the USOPC and how they could be remedied.

"A stage-wise approach shall be implemented to restore regulatory compliance and functional integrity to USA Cricket, with the ultimate aim of securing National Governing Body (NGB) recognition by the USOPC and eligibility for LA28 Olympic participation," the ICC said in the July 10 email. "The Committee is committed to helping to restore the integrity and credibility of USA Cricket. The roadmap provides a structured and lawful pathway to achieving NGB status and ensuring that USA Cricket is eligible to participate in LA28 as a fully compliant Olympic sporting body."

The first step of the roadmap involves the USAC removing its existing independent directors and replacing them with the three new names. The ICC "in consultation and cooperation" with USOPC would help finalise the three new directors who would need to fulfil the norms under the USAC constitution.

The USOPC has made it mandatory that one of the three new directors "must" be a female member. The USAC Board comprises 10 directors including Pisike, who was appointed chair in July 2023 and whose terms ends this December. The others comprise Anj Balusu, Atul Rai, Kuljeet Singh Nijjar, Arjun Gona, two former USA players Srinivas Salver and Nadia Gruny, along with two independent directors Pintoo Shah and David Haubert. The third independent director, Patricia Whittaker, stepped down in December 2024 and the position has not been filled since then.

The Normalisation Committee has also said that all existing directors would need to serve a mandatory two-year cooling-off period, which could also be extended further once the USAC constitution is updated, before they can contest elections for any governance post. "This shall be subject to review and any longer period of ineligibility that may be required under the revised USA Cricket Constitution, ICC regulations, or USOPC governance requirements," the ICC email said.

Once the three independent directors are inducted formally, the Normalisation Committee has said that the existing USAC Board will step down. This would be followed by the USAC applying for the NGB status with USOPC. "Following the induction of the Independent Directors, the process for NGB registration of USA Cricket with USOPC can be initiated," the ICC email said. "Parallel to this, a comprehensive review and reform of the USA Cricket Constitution shall be undertaken in close consultation with the Independent Directors and relevant ICC stakeholders."

The Normalisation Committee has said a USOPC-appointed observer will also be part of the new USA Cricket Board to provide "guidance on key matters of governance, compliance, and conduct of free and fair elections for both athlete representation and future Board members."

The roadmap comes hot on the heels of the USOPC writing to USAC on June 30. In that email, sent by senior USOPC official David Patterson to Atkeison, the USOPC listed various steps leading to the "renewal" of the USAC Board, a process it estimated could take between six to nine months once the three new independent directors have been appointed.

Patterson gave a positive nod to a query from Atkeison, sent on the same day, that if USAC did not follow the process proposed by USOPC to reset the board, it would not be eligible for NGB certification. "We do not see a scenario in which we would be opening the certification period for the sport of Cricket absent a new entrant in the space or a turnover of board leadership," Patterson's email said.

"We have also stated that the leaders of USA Cricket have arrived at a situation wherein the good people who have dedicated themselves to the sport and to its athletes have not formed a functional unit. Some combinations and sets of conditions just don't work out and in those cases we have found the best course of action by far is to reset the leadership, thank those tireless volunteers who have been serving and move on to a new phase in the organization."

Patterson also pointed out that the radical revamp USOPC was recommending to the USAC was necessary but also alerted it would take time for the true impact to be felt. "It will be important that the change in the Board be a change in culture. The new Board needs time to establish a new culture and new norms before having the community culture back in the room. Breaking the old habits will require some time and space."

On July 13, the USAC Board met to review the Normalisation Committee's proposal. Pisike said that the "majority opinion" from the USAC Board was they would not resign and instead continue dialogue with the Normalisation Committee and USOPC to find another option.

Pisike conveyed the same during his meeting on Wednesday with the Normalisation Committee and the ICC top brass in Singapore, where the cricket governing body's annual conference will take place this week. Pisike said that steps laid down by the Normalisation Committee in the July 10 email were not intended to be final, rather that they expanded on the options USOPC had provided.

"That doesn't mean that that's the direction ICC is giving because we already gave our position and explained the reasons for it during our meetings in April and June," Pisike said. "The ICC has not finalised [anything], but they are aware of the various options and the pros and cons of each and they are trying to figure out what is the best possible way. So we are hopeful that ICC will not take a option that was circulated in the July 10 email, but that was only to see if that is a viable option."

Pisike said that, even during the June meeting with the Normalisation Committee, they had discussed various options as to how USAC could get NGB status. However, he had pointed out then that replacing the Board would "not guarantee" that.

"Right then we had mentioned that this option is not viable because that doesn't solve the problem because right now the issue is the USAC Board's internal issues," he added. "But there's no guarantee replacing the Board [will be the solution]. The USOPC provided multiple options and one was the generic options they followed in earlier cases with other NGBs."