MCC to set up American development body

The Daily Telegraph reports that MCC is looking to establish a body called MCC America to help with coaching and coordinating the games development in the USA.

Although the news is a much-needed boost for the USA at a time its association has been suspended by the ICC following a disputed election and implementation of a questionable new constitution, there are toes likely to be trodden on.

Firstly, the USA Cricket Association, a body with a soviet-style approach to openness and transparency, is still nominally in charge of all aspects of the game and is likely to treat the idea as a threat more than an opportunity.

Secondly, the USACA has signed a deal with a marketing company called Centrex which aims to pass all the marketing and promotion of the game to a joint-venture third-party body. That new organisation will also be responsible for arranging and hosting ODIs featuring India and West Indies in the USA.

As well as setting up MCC America, the club is planning a tour of America in 2009 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first major overseas tour by a representative side from England in 1859. It has to be hoped the weather is better than then when the last match, admittedly on October 26 in New York on a baseball ground, was played out on a flooded pitch. The following day four inches of snow fell.

MCC will also host a USA v Europe match at Lord's in 2010.