INDIANAPOLIS: The International Cricket Council has set December 15, 2016 as the deadline for United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), now under suspension, to revise its governance structure which carries the support of the wider US cricket community and the ICC, and which is compliant with United States Olympic Committee requirements and best practice in the USA.
This hint has been given 'Under the terms of the Reinstatement' in the USA Cricket Report July 2015 to June 2016 released by ICC on Tuesday.
The Sustainable Foundation group, consisting of 10 representatives of the US cricket community, has been tasked with assisting the development of a future governance structure, constitution and underlying policies for cricket in the USA. To commence this process, the group met in early June in Colorado Springs, together with ICC and US Olympic Committee officials.
Many different governance structures were considered during a two-day workshop, and significant progress was made towards reaching agreement for a number of fundamental principles which will best serve the primary objective of unifying the USA cricket community. Further work is required in order to complete this exercise over the coming weeks/months.
An important finding of the June 2015 ICC Review Group report on USACA and cricket in the USA was that the USA cricket community was highly fractured, while USACA only represented a minority of the community.
In order for the game to move forward in a meaningful way a process of unification was therefore required, with the development and implementation of a strategy that focused on the collective future of cricket in the USA also being necessary in order to bring the community together.
The ICC and the USA cricket community-at-large have collaborated on a significant number of initiatives over the past 12 months in order to make very positive progress in this regard.
Over 100 domestic stakeholders were interviewed as part of the Review Group’s report. Following on from this engagement, continued community consultation has underpinned much of the positive activity over the past year.
This process commenced in August 2015 when the first of several "Town Hall" meetings was held in Chicago. The meeting, attended by over 80 people from around the country and several ICC officials including ICC Chief Executive David Richardson, provided an opportunity to: (i) bring the disparate USA cricket community together in one room; (ii) demonstrate that the ICC was serious about developing cricket in the USA; and (iii) begin talking to the entire community about what the future of US cricket could look like, including discussing the need to unify the current system.
In advance of this meeting, the community was invited to complete an on-line survey, the key messages from which helped to inform the discussion points at the meeting and establish areas of consideration for the future strategic framework.
Following this initial Town Hall meeting, several more localised meetings took place around the country between September and November, including a "Road Show" from 9 to 21 November where meetings were held in Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Raleigh, Chicago, Washington DC and New York.
In total, over 500 people – largely club and league representatives – attended these meetings that took place over a three month period.
Following a due diligence process that commenced in late 2015, it was confirmed in April 2016 that the ICC Americas office would be moving from Toronto, Canada to Colorado Springs, USA. A range of US cities were considered and US based organizations consulted as part of this process, including Property Consulting Group (ICC’s US based consultant), USA Rugby, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Excluding the big American professional sports, Colorado Springs is the centre of sports administration in the USA, hosting close to 30 governing bodies, as well as the USOC. It is likely that the ICC Americas office will commence operations in Colorado Springs in July/August.
World Cup 2019: As part of the qualification process for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Division 4 of the ICC’s World Cricket League will be played in Los Angeles in October/November 2016. Competing teams will include the USA, Bermuda, Italy, Denmark, Oman and Jersey, with the top two teams progressing to Division 3.
WICB Nagico Super 50: Following the ICC Americas Cricket Combine held in Indianapolis during September 2015, the best 15 players in the region were selected to represent ICC Americas in the WICB’s Nagico Super50 in January 2016. Nine USA players were selected.
The talent identification and selection process was coordinated by the ICC Americas High Performance Manager, Tom Evans, and led by former West Indies Captain Courtney Walsh, former Indian Test spinner Venkatapathy Raju and internationally renowned American fielding coach Mike Young.
Caribbean Premier League (CPL) contracts: With the support of the WICB and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), six ICC Americas players from the Nagico Super50 were contracted by franchises for the 2016 edition of the CPL. These included Ali Khan, Steven Taylor and Timroy Allen (USA), and Nikhil Dutta, Nitish Kumar and Hamza Tariq (Canada). Caribbean Premier League (CPL) matches will be played in Lauderhill, Florida from July 28 to 31, 2016
USA Cricket Combines: Eight USA Cricket Combines took place for senior men, female and youth players between April and June 2016 in several cities across the country, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Chicago, Washington DC, New Jersey and New York. Over 1000 players applied for a position at the Combines, with over 500 ultimately attending.
A cross promotion initiative took place during the Chicago Combine with the Chicago White Sox.
The Combines were coordinated by ICC Americas in collaboration with the US cricket community, including 55 local coaches. Several international coaches including Eldine Baptiste (WICB selector), Graeme West (WICB U-19 coach), Catherine Fitzpatrick (former Australian women’s international) and Mike Young were also involved.
USA National Team selectors: A public application process to appoint national team selectors for USA senior men, senior women and youth teams is currently taking place.
Cricket All Star: The ICC sanctioned the staging of the Cricket All Stars series featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne and numerous other former international players across three US cities in November 2015. A total of approximately 90,000 people attended the three matches which were played on drop-in wickets in Major League Baseball stadiums in New York, Houston and Los Angeles.
