The selection condundrum continues

Ahead of the Americas Cup and the Intercontinental Cup fixtures in Bermuda in July, the USA Cricket Association selection committee is sticking to its guns over the USA teams it has selected for the contests -- and in doing so running into a firestorm of criticism over its decisions.

The committee, consisting of Chic Masood, Earl Daly, Raj Singh, Fazl Karim and Lawrence Rowe, the former West Indies Test cricketer, operates in complete secrecy, releasing its lists of selectees just before scheduled events are to take place. There have been few comments on why certain players were selected, or others overlooked.

According to the rumor mills, Chic Masood, a former USACA president who now represents the USACA's Central East region on the board of directors, and also is the physio for the USA team, makes all the major decisions, from team selection to acting as field commander at international matches. Masood's detractors point to this as the major stumbling bock in improving US cricket performance -- get rid of Masood, they suggest, or US Cricket will remain becalmed in a Sargasso sea of its own making.

A tantalizing hint of internal disagreements emerged a few months ago in separate interviews Richard Staple, the USA captain, and Mr. Masood gave to Wisden Cricinfo's Tony Munro. Speaking before the USA-Canada Intercontinental Cup fixture in Florida, Staple said that he would like to include some young fast bowlers in the USA side, rather than the opening bowlers he had to work with. Masood, on the other hand, advised against making any major changes to the team that had won the Sharjah Six-Nation Challenge. In his opinion, it was best to go with a winning combination. Judging by recent announcements, Masood's views appear to have carried the day. The USA teams are almost identical to the one selected for Sharjah, with few (if any) discernible changes in the line-ups.

This unswerving dedication to the original USA choices needs to be re-examined in the light of what happened after those interviews. In Florida, the USA was soundly drubbed by Canada, thanks to record-breaking performances with ball and bat by Canadian captain John Davison, and a new word -- "Davisonned" --was added to the US cricket vocabulary.

And the Western and Eastern Conferences of the US National Championship in Plano (Texas) showcased some of the talent that exists across the USA; and, in the process, spotlighted the USA selections. That there were no major changes in the USA rosters even after Florida and Texas has sparked considerable ire and outrage among US cricketers, and the annoyance shows no sign of abating.

In defence of the USACA selection committee, it has been pointed out that the USACA has been hamstrung by ICC's "residency requirements", which (at least in the US context) are nothing short of draconian. The processes of obtaining permanent resident status or naturalization are so slow-moving in the USA, especially after 9/11, that many US cricketers fail to qualify under ICC rules even a decade after becoming legal US residents. This, say those defending the USACA, is why there are so many near-geriatric players in the USA team.

American ProCricket, for one, has been alive to this situation; it has been quietly telling US cricketers that they do have a place to play near-first-class cricket even if the USACA and ICC prevent them from participating at international level. If ProCricket achieves even a modicum of success in the coming months, it will not be long before impatient younger cricketers in the USA defect to its ranks -- this, at any rate, is the spectre facing US cricket.

Meanwhile, it is off to Bermuda, to, at best, uncertain success in the Intercontinental Cup and the Americas Tournament. If the USA succeeds in retaining the Americas Cup, which it won in 2003, and is able to defeat Bermuda in the Intercontinental Cup, its selection philosophy will have been at least partially vindicated. If not, watch for the gathering storm. It will not be long in coming.