USA Cricket Faces Administrative Oblivion - Again

USA Cricket's board has FAFO'ed, and the ICC is ready to bring down the hammer.

I was not an ardent follower of domestic cricket when the United States of America Cricket Association [spits] was expelled from the International Cricket Council, but the ICC’s intervention was clearly necessary in hindsight given the progress that has been made since the change, with the men’s national team stronger than ever and cricket beginning to take sustainable root on the coasts as well as in Atlanta, Raleigh, and across Texas. The United States is one of only two countries to have its governing body outright expelled from the ICC and have that country return later and is by far the more successful of the two. The other one is Switzerland (yeah, me neither).

There is an enormous amount of external pressure and expectation on the United States, and on USA Cricket, to grow the sport in good faith because of the immense economic potential for the game. This is still the world’s richest consumer market (for now), one that is conditioned to pay steep prices for high-end sporting experiences, one that watches sports of all stripes religiously, and one the ICC is adamant about cracking. The Indian diaspora alone in the United States is enough to make the country competitive, but growth and outreach to other demographics (like me!) will be instrumental to maximizing the sport’s potential here, up to and including possible Full Member status. With that in mind, the ICC has taken a strong hand with American cricket governance and emphasized getting it right.

USA Cricket appears to be following a different script; specifically, a live adaptation of Lord of the Flies.

The launch of the new governing body in 2019 was almost immediately beset by problems that could have been written off as growing pains, but things got worse after the catastrophic end to Ireland's ambitious 2021 white-ball tour that left the board in a big financial hole. Iain Higgins left as CEO shortly before that, and affairs have been dicey and disorganized since then, with what was supposed to be a 2020 election for three seats on the board delayed by a year and a half. The T20 World Cup didn't make things better (and if anything made them worse), and lawsuits and misconduct allegations and attempts at playing politics to quell dissent and another round of delayed elections - which on-the-ground work by Peter Della Penna in Oakland implies is deliberate (shocker!) - have soured relations with the both the ICC and the USOPC. They can’t even get their address right: the ICC page for USAC says Los Altos, California; USAC’s own website has a mailing address for an office in Broomfield, Colorado, which is currently listed for rent, and their tax documents say they’re in Dallas. Where in the World is USA Cricket? (And if you think that song is a crazy pull, try living in my head 24/7.)

The ICC has decided it’s time to find out; or rather, that it’s time for USA Cricket to find out, having done, uh, the things that lead to finding out.

A 12 month notice period will expire in just a few days, and Sahil Malhotra at Times of India reported over the weekend that the ICC is considering suspending USA Cricket at its annual conference in Singapore July 18-19. The ICC told USAC last year that it wanted to see the governing body clean up its act, and while one of the two explicit criteria was met almost immediately - the hiring of CEO Jonathan Atkeison - the requested changes to make USA Cricket’s governance structure “fit for purpose” have not materialized. Now they’re turning up the heat, up to and including asking for the resignation of the current board - as in all of them - and the ICC is happy to do it for them if required.

The USOPC, which wants its house in order for the 2028 Summer Olympics, is also applying pressure. While USAC has been quick to note when constitutional changes have been made, the USOPC seems to be unconvinced that this board can deliver concrete progress. Atkeison relayed as much in a meeting on April 21, the last meeting for which minutes are posted on USA Cricket’s website. So this isn’t just ICC technicalities; there is legitimate concern for the ability of this board to reliably govern cricket in the United States. The board’s growth initiatives have stalled, leaving third-party entities like Major League Cricket to do the heavy lifting. While they have been effective, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be: the board is expected to be a central, unifying figure. That has not been happening here for several years.

All this turmoil is putting a strain on the bottom line. Minutes from USAC’s board meeting on February 8 indicate they have revised revenue projections down by $600,000 for fiscal year 2025 and cut operating expenses by $300,000. While tax year 2024 documents aren’t readily available yet, 2023 documents showed USA Cricket bringing in $3.2 million in revenue; if those projections hold true for subsequent years, a $600,000 cut would be 18% of USAC’s annual revenues, and $300,000 would be a 12% budget cut. The ICC contributed just under $1.8 million to USAC’s revenues for tax year 2023, or 56% of what they reported to the IRS. Any compromising of that funding would create problems, but if the ICC were to withhold all of it from a suspended Associate Member - which would not be hard to justify! - it would render USAC insolvent almost immediately and likely send them head-first into bankruptcy.

That’s before we ever get to the on-field ramifications. The US men’s team is qualified for the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next year, which is a huge deal for the players, many of whom have ties to India either by birth, ancestry, time spent, or family living there. Suspension of USAC by the ICC would compromise their ability to play in ICC events like the T20 World Cup or CWC League 2, which they currently lead on points as they pursue qualification for the 2027 Cricket World Cup in Africa - their third ICC event inside the eight-year window used for measuring progress toward Full Member status.

Look, I don’t like the ICC very much for a lot of reasons I’m saving for a different piece, but they win this fight 100% of the time, and the facts suggest it’s a good thing in the long run that they do. It’s even easier to make the move when the USOPC is backing them up on it. USAC’s board is unable to govern effectively, attract sponsorships, or manage growth initiatives, and the board members keep delaying elections. Now it doesn’t matter, because one way or another, they’re gone. No cavalry is coming in the form of wealthy new sponsors or spiteful billionaires itching to bankroll a renegade cricket board in the United States just to stick it to Jay Shah & Co (unless the Saudis are really pissed off). They could try to hold onto whatever fleeting power they might have as persona non grata in the cricketing world, but being the most powerful person on a sinking ship just means you drown last.

It’s frankly astonishing that we are already in this position again so soon after such a massive upheaval as changing governing bodies all together. The fate of the existing board appears by and large sealed, but whatever happens, the ICC and all the figures involved in this need to ensure that the cycle is broken this time. For the board members themselves, there is only one honorable thing to do here, and not doing it will plunge the country back into cricket purgatory. Too much is at stake, and the game’s progress here is too fragile to let this go any other way. I will write to whomever I need to in order to get that point home.

I just have to figure out where to send the letters first.

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Thanks for reading Stumps & Stripes! I hope you enjoyed this piece more than I enjoyed writing it, because, hoo boy, that was a lot. It’s important, though, and I do it out of love for the sport and for the American game. If you liked it, I would ask that you consider a free email subscription. This is a hobby for me, not a profession, so subs are free and will stay that way.

If you’d like coverage of some more joyful things happening in the US, check out my latest Major League Cricket power rankings as the season shifts to Florida tonight.

I still have pieces coming on Washington and Seattle this week, and am currently grinding tape of the women’s U19 and Conference championships with a view toward standout individual players, hopefully sometime next week. Stay tuned!