US cricket heads towards the twilight zone

After weeks of no news - a legacy , so it was claimed, of gagging orders imposed by the courts - the USA Cricket Association and Council of League Presidents have finally made an announcement about the future running of the game in the USA. Few will be surprised to learn that the outcome is yet another fudge.

In short, the legal proceedings have been referred to October 28, by mutual agreement, during which time an amended USACA board can operate. That consists of the ten members who won the contested elections earlier this year, plus the four individuals controversially disqualified for supposedly failing to adhere to the letter of the law regarding candidature.

However, the quorum remains at six members, which effectively ensures that the controlling group led by Gladstone Dainty, the USACA president, can maintain the same hold over the running of the board that they have since those elections.

What is also clear is that the CLP is to all intents and purposes shut out. Not only does it not have ant real representation on the board, it is also prevented from making any comments or putting up any postings on its own website. Given that the USACA has operated in virtual secrecy for some time, that means that the rank and file inside the US cricket fraternity will be even less informed about what is going on - as hard as that seems, given that they have been told almost nothing throughout this drawn-out affair.

Rumours had been doing the rounds for a few weeks that the CLP was in retreat, and this announcement appears to confirm that. After arriving in a blaze of publicity and offering hope that there might be a chance for cricket in the US to salvage something from the wreckage of the previous regime's mismanagement, The CLP looks to have been all bluster and little substance. There has been no new dawn - in fact, the national game looks to be crawling even further into the darkness.