NEW DELHI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has finally run out of patience with USA Cricket (USAC). On Tuesday afternoon, the ICC took the long-awaited call to suspend the USAC Board. A letter to this effect is being sent to its members. The ICC got in a huddle earlier today after receiving several written complaints from various stakeholders in American cricket.The writing had been on the wall for a while now ever since USAC was put on notice during the Annual Conference last year in Sri Lanka. At this year’s conference in Singapore, the cricket body got three more months to set their house in order. For several weeks now, the ICC had repeatedly warned USAC and its Chairman Venu Pisike to put fair processes in place for transparent governance. Even in the third month of the notice extension, unresolved material conflicts, improper selection of candidates and manipulation of processes to suit the needs of specific individuals remained the talking points ahead of the USAC elections.TimesofIndia.com has learnt that three boards of Cricket Leagues – New Jersey, Dallas, Southern California – have written to the members of the Nominations Governance Committee (NGC). The issues of validity of members in the ethics committee and the “material conflict of interest” were raised with the NGC which also has Jonathan Hall, General Counsel & Company Secretary at ICC, on board.Both NGC members and ICC didn’t respond to TimesofIndia.com’s queries on the recent development. The story will be updated the moment either of them respond.Even the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) had advocated for a complete revamp. In an email addressed to the USAC CEO Johnathan Atkeison, David Patterson, the Senior Governance Advisor at USOPC, proposed “the Independent members of the USA Cricket Board of Directors resign” and “Independent members are appointed to replace those Independent members”.Both ICC and USOPC were on the same page when it came to pressing the reset button and most of the current office bearers were also of the same opinion. Pisike, however, remained defiant and is learnt to have even influenced other sitting office bearers to not resign from their position. The mess further deepened when the USAC decided to terminate its contract with American Cricket Enterprises (ACE), the parent company of Major League Cricket (MLC).It now remains to be seen what the next steps are and how the ICC plans to restore order and normalcy in the region ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup and the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. There is no threat to USA’s participation in next year’s World Cup but some crucial decisions are expected in the next few days.
