USA in limbo following Lockerbie dismissal

It has been over a week since Don Lockerbie was ousted as chief executive of the USA Cricket Association and still there has been no official explanation of why he was dismissed and what the process will be to replace him. The board to a man has shut up shop and declined to offer any insight to what happened.

What has emerged is that Lockerbie appears to have been dismissed ahead of the board meeting in Florida last weekend, so it has the hallmarks of a coup organised by Gladstone Dainty, the man who presided over USACA's slide into the complete dysfunctionality which led to it being twice suspended by the ICC. He seems to have resumed control; the wall of silence certainly is a hallmark of the way he operates.

Lockerbie appears to have paid the price for his ambitious plans for US cricket failing to materialise. Speaking to him in July 2009, three months after he took office, there was a feeling that he believed he could make things happen tempered with a suspicion he had bitten off far more than he could chew. Promises of an IPL-style tournament in the USA in 2010 and a fully professional national team by 2012 were not supported by a sound financial model.

He came to the USA with the advantage of being well connected within the ICC but the disadvantage of having been in charge of stadiums at the 2007 World Cup. And while happy to talk at length to the media when things were going well, as soon as the going got tough he clammed up, too often failing to return calls or answer the tougher questions.

The turning point was the triangular Twenty20 tournament he organised in Florida in May. The idea was sound but it had to feature India, Pakistan or West Indies to succeed. Instead, he brought in Sri Lanka and New Zealand, two sides with limited box office appeal and small numbers of local expats. Excuses given for cancelled games bordered on the daft, attendances were small, and almost everyone seems to have been left out of pocket. Nobody has been willing to discuss the finances of the event, but sources close to the tournament indicate USACA sustained huge losses.

Since then spending has continued despite increasing questions of how it was all being financed. He appeared to spend a lot of time courting relationships on the subcontinent without any of them producing tangible returns. Eventually it appears Lockerbie ran out of support and possible USACA of cash.

The burning question now is what direction USACA will take. Dainty has far too much baggage to take charge again in anything other than a caretaker role, although don't expect that to stop him trying.

Internationally, Lockerbie has wasted up a lot of goodwill. Until a credible replacement is in place, nobody is likely to want to get involved.

The ICC, meanwhile, which bent over backwards to help US cricket under Lockerbie, seems to have been as wrongfooted by his removal as anyone, and is just as in the dark. It is unlikely it will want to keep backing any board led by Dainty and is likely to sit back and wait to see what happens.

So for now, US cricket is back in limbo. The worrying thing is with a board unaccountable to anyone, even its own stakeholders, that situation could rumble on for years.