New York cricket thrown into chaos

The first three letters in television drama "CSI:NY" used to stand for crime scene investigation, but now they can be substituted for cricket squad instability. The removal of New York regional chairman, Jefroy Morrishaw, has been followed by the replacement of both coach and manager from the team that won the USA Cricket Association Eastern Conference Tournament in July.

According to a report that was first published on newyorkcricket.com, Morrishaw was removed in a no-confidence vote taken at a meeting on October 9. Krish Prasad, New York's representative on the USACA board of directors, called the meeting. "The region was not functioning and not maintaining the standards laid out in the constitution," Prasad said.

According to a source who was present at the meeting, there were eight yes votes in favour of removing Morrishaw, with one no, one abstention and one person not present. Voting was made up of the seven league presidents and four members-at-large in the region.

When called for comment, Morrishaw said the result shouldn't count. "The meeting was illegal and USACA is looking into it."

Prasad said that since Morrishaw had taken office early in 2008 he had personally raised zero dollars for the region to help fund any activities, including sending youth and men's teams to USACA tournaments. Clifford Hinds, who stepped down over the summer as New York region youth coordinator, claimed that was not necessarily fair as he believes that Morrishaw should get some credit for funds raised by other people under his direction.

"Whatever money I helped to raise or anybody helped to raise, you should get credit for it as the director," said Hinds.

Morrishaw was replaced on an interim basis by former USACA Treasurer Selwyn Caesar. However, Morrishaw was not the only casualty resulting from the meeting.

Zamin Amin, a former USA captain, and Godfrey Mitchell have replaced Linden Fraser and Linden Dodson as coach and manager of the New York team, according to lists obtained from USACA for the squads that will be competing in Florida next week at the USACA National Championship.

Fraser claims his removal is politically motivated since he was appointed coach while Morrishaw was still in power. New York's squad was submitted after Caesar was put in charge, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

"There was an election before we went to Washington to elect a coach," said Fraser. "It was me running against [USA Under-19 coach Sew] Shivnarine and I won it. I won the votes over Shivnarine to be the coach of this team. So how come now you're going to get rid of me when I was elected by the seven league presidents before we went to Washington D.C.? I was the coach. I took the team to the finals. So what's the problem now?"

He also said he never received a call from anyone in the region informing him that he had been replaced. Fraser, who is a WICB Level II qualified coach, said Amin is not qualified and that it's not the first time this year that he has been passed over or replaced by someone who doesn't have any coaching certifications.

"If you are going to talk about promoting cricket, I'm a certified coach. The only guy who is more certified than me is one guy who lives in California, is [South West region] coach [Reggie] Benjamin. If you are going knock me out to bring in somebody who does not even have an introductory cricket certificate, well then you're trying to tell me something. They don't want me to have nothing to do with cricket in this region.

"It happened at the local level and it happened at the national level because Sew Shivnarine doesn't have a certificate too and he's the national coach… Sew Shivnarine is the only coach going to the World Cup without a certificate, period. These are things that I need people from outside New York to know what's going on. This guy Zamin Amin has no certificates whatsoever, never even went to a coaching seminar."

Wesley King, the secretary of the New York region and manager of the USA U-19 squad that qualified for the 2010 ICC U-19 World Cup, refused to comment. However, a source who wished not to be identified supported Fraser's statement that neither Amin nor Shivnarine, who played eight Tests for West Indies, have any coaching certifications.

Fraser was also upset that Andre Kirton, who was part of the New York team that won in Washington, D.C., and a member of USA's 2006 U-19 World Cup squad in Sri Lanka, was dropped to accommodate the inclusion of Sudesh Dhaniram, who was part of USA's ICC Americas Division One winning team in November of 2008. Dhaniram, who will turn 43 in January, did not participate in the Eastern Conference Tournament allegedly because of work commitments.

"You claiming that you're looking to promote cricket and you drop a guy who's 21 years old to put in a guy who's 43 years old?" said Fraser.

Calls made to interim chairman Caesar for comment on the situation were not returned. New York Region and USA Steve Massiah declined to comment when contacted by phone.