Looking to the future

There were 18 participants and seven observers at the meeting called on March 4 by Clifford Hinds, the USACA's development manager. Four were from the USACA executive, three were USACA regional directors, five were representing USA regions, and six were from cricket academies ( three academies from the NY/NJ region, and two from "outside"--one from the Midwest, and one from California). In other words, 60% of the official participants were either USACA staff or from the NY/NJ Region, rising to 70% if observers were included in the tally.

Significantly, not one of the independent junior cricket organizations - in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, California, Tennessee, Texas and Florida - participated in the meeting, even though Hinds had issued an open invitation for them to do so. Enlisting their participation will have to be a priority if a USACA national junior program is to get off the ground, and only time will tell if this is going to happen.

There were also no discussions or mention of any other junior tournaments to be taking place in the USA, notably those announced by Major League Cricket in May and September, and how they could clash and drain resources or if it makes sense to work together.

After brief introductions from all the participants, Cal Cricket, which had executed a controversial contract with the USACA executive to take over the responsibility for its junior cricket tournaments, gave highlights of the National Under-11, Under-13 and Under-15 tournaments to be held this June in the San Francisco bay area. They outlined rules, approaches and deadlines for various registrations and requested everybody present to spread the word and bring teams to make the tournament successful.

Gladstone Dainty, the USACA president, wholeheartedly supported Cal Cricket and its initiative. He also got briefly into the current politics and said that somebody had to take the blame for the failure, and he would be the one to take it, but he would look forward to make things right and sought everybody's support . Dainty stressed the point that proper steps needed to be taken to take the game of cricket to mainstream Americans, and not just Americans with cricket-playing national origin. Appropriate committees had to be formed, and a plan had to be put in place and worked accordingly.

The upcoming U-19 tournament was discussed next. Chidambar Joshi of CSA in Chicago urged USACA and Dainty to rethink the strategy of conducting all the high-level games only in California, New York or Florida instead of adopting a rotation policy He said that this would set the stage for the regional bodies to participate, promote and attract sponsors if not immediately but in the near future.

Vish Lekhram of New York's Cricket International Academy, stressed the importance of a good network and contacts to accomplish financial goals. Later T'Shaka Lee of SCCA came up with some concrete suggestions and numbers that could work in favor of USACA. Chidambar Joshi asked if USACA had any policies or guidelines regarding how the USACA would permit usage of its name and backing the efforts by other entities. He said this was a very important item-- that USACA, in the absence of committed corporate marketing team, had to put its energy and force behind those who had the means to help achieve some of the financial goals.

Selwyn Caesar, the USACA treasurer, urged Lekhram and some other participants to do more in the department of fund raising for various USACA events.

Basil Butcher, the trainer who recently visited Sri Lanka with U-19 team, felt that proper facilities were a very important aspect for producing competing cricketers at the international level. Dainty's response was simple - "many great cricketers of yesteryear did not have proper training or facility and yet it did not stop them from excelling."

Cricket Sporting Academy shared its success story of how it has grown to be a strong entity in the past five years. Chidambar Joshi brought the gathering up to date with CSA's three-point vision and mechanics to achieve those vision and goals.

Before concluding the meeting, Hinds announced formation of four new committees - an executive committee, coaching standards & curriculum committee, schools and academies cricket education committee, and the fundraising & sponsorship committee. He also named the chairmen and members of these committees.

The next steps will involve charging the committees formed with their objectives and goals, which is slated to take place in the week of March 13.