The USA Cricket Association (USACA) has announced that just 15 out of 47 total member leagues will be eligible to vote in the upcoming USACA general elections. The other 32 leagues were ruled to be non-compliant and thus ineligible to vote after the completion of an audit conducted by Texas attorney Robert Chance.

The news is a major blow to cricket stakeholders less than a week after the announcement that Keith Wyness, the former chief executive at both Aberdeen and Everton FC, was hired as the first CEO of Cricket Holdings America, a joint venture between USACA and New Zealand Cricket to develop cricket in the United States primarily through the start of a professional domestic Twenty20 league.

According to USACA, the board met on February 26 to review Chance's final report in which he divided 41 out of the 47 leagues into three tiers of classification: "should be considered eligible to vote", "could be considered eligible to vote, depending on board decision" and a third group "should not be considered eligible to vote". The determinations were made based on a nine-item list of criteria that each league was instructed to satisfy in order to remain eligible.

The 12 leagues in the first group were all unanimously approved as eligible to vote by the board while the 17 in the third group were immediately declared ineligible through a 6-2 majority vote. The board then took individual votes for each league in the middle classification group to decide which ones would stay eligible. Out of the 12 on the borderline, three leagues - Brooklyn Cricket League, New York Cricket League and Central Florida Cricket Association - were approved to vote while the other nine were all struck down.

Among those leagues that have been disqualified are some of the oldest and largest leagues in America. They include the New York Metropolitan and District Cricket Association, Eastern American Cricket Association (NY), Commonwealth Cricket League (NY), Cricket League of New Jersey, Northern California Cricket Association, Southern California Cricket Association and Midwest Cricket Conference. Two regions, the South West and North East, had all of their leagues ruled ineligible.

"This is a big farce," USACA board member Krish Prasad told ESPNcricinfo on Monday night. "I hope that something happens or someone looks into this to clear it up. This is the total destruction for United States cricket and an embarrassment."

Prasad says that board members were sent an email containing Chance's verdict on the leagues at 10.22 pm EST on February 25, just over 12 hours before an 11am board meeting on Sunday the 26th. He said only got a chance to read the email once the meeting had already gotten underway on Sunday morning.

"At that point I voiced my opinion that this is ridiculous," Prasad said. "We gave you four months to come up with this compliance report. You worked on it. You give us an extension. You reply back. You ask for more information. We give it to you. In one day, you tell us we have to make a decision right away? We have to look at it and get some more information.

"First of all, why were some of the leagues not eligible to participate and some are? Who made that decision? You classify them in different categories based on what? What was the policy or procedure to use to put them in different categories?"

USACA vice president Michael Gale said all leagues had a chance to submit information to prove their legitimacy and eligibility, but many could not prove it.

"All leagues were contacted by the auditor Robert Chance as far back as September of last year," Gale said. "A number of those leagues did not deliver any information into this process and a number of leagues only delivered very partial information into this process."

Not a single one of the 47 USACA leagues met all nine of the criteria set out by Chance to be fully compliant. When asked why some leagues were approved to vote and some weren't, Gale responded by pointing toward certain categories.

"You're assuming that all the nine variables are equal," Gale said. "For example, few if any leagues had either a youth or a women's development plan in place. I think one of the concerning outcomes of this audit, even for the leagues that managed to get through the audit process, very few leagues had either a youth or women's program in place. It's not the number of variables that were covered, but the magnitude of those variables which were really important."

Perhaps the league with the biggest gripe is the Midwest Cricket Conference. It was one of only two leagues, along with Great Lakes Cricket Conference, to successfully meet eight out of nine criteria, which was better than any other league for the audit. While GLCC was ruled eligible, MCC was not. When asked why MCC was ruled ineligible, Gale replied, "I'm not going to comment on a particular league's compliance or not because I think that's not appropriate."

Before a vote took place deciding which of the 12 borderline leagues would be eligible to vote, Prasad said he left the conference call in protest of what was taking place. He expects that many leagues may explore the possibility of going to court to challenge the ruling by the board.

"[USACA president Gladstone Dainty] didn't want Eastern American on that list because Eastern American has been challenging him for [what] he's been doing and he knows that's not a vote for him," Prasad said. "So if it's not a vote for him, then why put them on the list? He puts just about every league that would support him and vote for him. That's how these lists came about."

USACA general elections are currently scheduled for March 17, but the USACA constitution states that all nominations for board positions must be submitted 30 days in advance of an election. All valid nominations must then be circulated to legitimate voting members at least 21 days prior to an election, which means it isn't possible for any elections to happen by March 17. USACA has not officially announced another postponement, but its website did state "more information will be sent out detailing the process, schedule and the appointment of the CPA."