Refaie suspension can only harm Project USA

After almost three weeks of apparent inactivity by the executive of the USA Cricket Association - its own website still fails to mention the minor matter of Project USA being suspended - action was taken at the weekend, but it was hardly designed to quell the growing unrest within US cricket.

Cricinfo has been passed a memo issued by Gladstone Dainty, the under-fire president of the USACA, in which he states that Bobby Refaie, the association's secretary and one of Dainty's severest critics, has been suspended and that all dealings which would previously have gone through Refaie should now be passed to Dainty.

Officially, Refaie's crime is that he "included a number of ineligible candidates in the ballots for elections" . Unofficially, most believe that it is Refaie's constant battle with Dainty that led to this action which effectively removes Refaie from having anything to do with the association elections.

But there are some other issues raised by the memo. The memo names three other individuals as being "ineligible" to take part in the elections, and those three are all considered to have been in with a good chance of defeating existing board members. The memo also says that the decision was made "unanimously" by the USACA board, but Cricinfo has learned that only five members took part in the conference call. The memo is dated March 11 - the day after the election was due to be concluded.

Whatever transpires in the coming days, Dainty's move is hardly likely to help the USA's bid to have Project USA reinstated. The ICC has made no secret that it has no faith in the USACA's management, and any move which will result in that same management continuing unchecked is hardly going to improve relations.