ICC Suspends USA Cricket Project

[Skater]

The International Cricket Council has pulled the plug on a plan to spread the game to the United States of America. The ICC cited poor organisation within the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) in its decision to suspend Project USA. "The ICC is not satisfied that the USACA is meeting its obligations to review and restructure its governance to meet the needs of Project USA. As a consequence (it) is suspended," ICC chief Malcolm Speed said. "We have witnessed the unseemly and public debate surrounding the USACA elections. At this stage we are not able to recommend the ICC Full Members that they participate in Project USA given the unsatisfactory state of governance in the USA. I will now be preparing a report on the status of this project for consideration by the ICC Board at its next meeting in March." In January, a letter from the ICC to the US Cricket Association was leaked to a website. "We have never seen a sporting organisation that combines such great potential and such poor administration as USACA," said the letter. "We question whether the current administration of USACA can play any constructive role in taking the game forward in the United States." Project USA, a joint venture between the ICC, the USACA and the West Indies Cricket Board, was to have brought full one-day internationals involving leading teams to the country. The revenue gained was to fund a development looking to improve the standard of the US national team, which was beaten heavily by New Zealand and Australia in September's Champions Trophy.

Source: BBC Sport (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/4275271.stm)

 

[icyman]

Pretty good thing done here by the ICC.
Anyhow the Us is not hosting any cricket matches in 2007.Good the project was scrapped.

 

[andrew_nixon]

Pretty good thing done here by the ICC.
Anyhow the Us is not hosting any cricket matches in 2007.Good the project was scrapped.

Why is it good? I think it's a shame that the project has been scrapped. There is a huge untapped market for cricket in the USA. It's a real shame that the USACA couldn't get it's act together.

 

[Richard Pierce]

Sad News

Hello, this is my first post here. I have just read this story. I think it is very sad because the USA need to have a Cricket team in my opinion.

 

[andrew_nixon]

They do have a cricket team, just not a very good one.....

 

[Skater]

yeah, seeing the margin of defeat in the ICC trophy to nz and aus!!!

 

[andrew_nixon]

Prior to the first World War, the USA were one of the top cricket playing nations. It was the ICC who screwed it up by restricting membership of the ICC to commonwealth countries only until 1965.

 

[Skater]

Research!

I never knew that. That's very interesting to know. andrew_nixon has obviously been doing research! I've given you some reputation points.

 

[barmyarmy]

Andrew doesn't need to research stuff like this. He's got it all on implicit retrieval...

 

[sohum]

Wasn't there something about the first recorded cricket match (some form or another) being played between USA and Canada? This is not good news. As for the West Indies B, err USA team, this is bad news for them. Hopefully they'll be able to earn back the ICC's trust somehow or another.

 

[andrew_nixon]

Almost right.... the first international was between the USA and Canada. Cricket was played for many years before that.

 

[fardin]

Pretty good thing done here by the ICC.
Anyhow the Us is not hosting any cricket matches in 2007.Good the project was scrapped.

why do you think it is a good thing?There are alot countries That are waiting to be giving a spot in international cricket by ICC but even though usaca has bad administrationg ICC is more concentrating on them rather then those other countries that are allegible,I hope usa wins the tournament that is coming up so they can play in the world cup.

Some of you members were not happy with the performance that usa showed in icc trophy,The reason we have not good players in the team is because those players are usa citizens and they are alligable for the requirments that is writting by the usaca,Other wise we have alot of young man wanting to play for the country,but they are not citizens,

We have over 16000 players around the united states playing cricket,It is more then zimbabwe more then bangladesh,

 

[icyman]

it comes down to unsatisfactory governance by the Us government.
a major problem is that of the visas.
Even the singer Cat Stevens was denied one.
NO doubt the Icc thought that top subcontinent players would be rejected.

 

[nightprowler10]

Just discovered this part of the forum. I wanted give you guys some input about the state of cricket in USA.

There are cricket leagues all over the country. One of the biggest one, Midwest Cricket Conference (MCC), operates out of a town that is not far away from me. I am in regular contact with the President of the league, Tariq Ahmed, as I am interested in joining the league. According to him, people (not just Indians and Pakistanis) are just starting to take serious interest in the game of cricket and sending their kids to training academies set-up by this league. As of right now, one has to pay to play, upto 200 USD!!! This is so the league can afford to operate. Of course for me its a small price to pay seeing as how I have been deprived of cricket for more than 7 years. :crying

As much awareness of cricket is being spread out through the country due to pro-cricket (sarcasm), ICC's program was helping make the sport more popular here and terminating the program will put a big dent in these efforts. I just hope the ICC takes some steps to make cricket one of the regular high school gym activites here (yes I know, but I can dream dammit).

 

[indiancricketer]

this sucks if america had gotten this project approved the full world would try to play cricket....canada would also then become a full icc member and then other nations would also try i really wanted it to be approved