Californians Should Get Their House In Order First

By Orin Davidson
It is not surprising or unexpected that tensions are rising with yet another deadline looming for the staging of United States of America Cricket Association elections.

And from all indications it seems another battle between officials from the West and Eastern Regions of Cricket America is in the making.

If reports emanating from sympathizers from the West are taken seriously like the cricinfo website article published earlier this week, you have to fear for the future of United States cricket.

So far officials from the East have not taken kindly to the views expressed by Deb Das, with a few even deeming them an outrage.

According to Das, the Asian fraternity which is heavily populated in California and which has shown the heaviest opposition to the present USACA regime, feels left out administrative-wise on the national body.

He went on to state, "Yet there are lingering apprehensions that things may not go quite as smoothly. Many of these are voiced by Asians who have rapidly expanded their participation in US cricket; they point out, with some justification, that all members of the USACA executive and a majority of the USACA board are from the Caribbean."

Does it really mean that positions on the USACA executive should be guaranteed based on competitions staged and the numbers of individuals involved?

You get that impression based on that view which might or might not represent those of the majority of Asia Americans involved in our cricket.

The reality is that the sport here has been yearning for professional management from
its inception and to discover such misguided thinking being expressed from officials desirous of taking over, is disheartening.

USACA needs fair and unbiased officials which can only be had from people who place development at the top of their priority list.

And if one is to observe the happenings out of California, you don’t see much of a difference in the composition of teams representing the Northern and Southern California teams, compared to the words purportedly emanating from that state.

This year's national Under-19 championship was a good example.

Regardless of how hard you looked, there were no non Asians in the two California squads that played in Florida recently.

And even more disturbing was the replacement of longstanding coach, Antigua-born Reggie Benjamin from the Southern California team.

If that is their way of expressing their presence in the game, then those Asian American officials, are on the wrong track.

The duty of administrators in California and throughout America is to expose cricket to all sectors of society and from the recent evidence, that is not the case there.

West Indians play cricket throughout this country and it is incredible that no junior could've made the cut from all of California this year.

So far Asian American players or teams from any part of this country cannot complain of ill-treatment from USACA.

And if the Californians want to run the national ruling body they have to get their house in order first.
Orin Davidson Column Homepage