News

American players warned off ProCricket?

Outwardly, the United States Cricket Association has no stated policy on whether American national players should play in the new ProCricket league

Deb K Das
13-Aug-2004
Outwardly, the United States Cricket Association has no stated policy on whether American national players should play in the new ProCricket league. The USACA has consistently refused to answer questions on the issue, in spite of repeated requests to clarify its position. However, if the following account - which was posted on a US Cricket bulletin board - is true, it indicatets the Association's real stance towards ProCricket.
It would seem that Richard Staple (the USA captain), Steve Massiah and Zamin Amin - all members of the USA team which played in the recent Intercontinental Cup matches and the 2004 Americas Tournament - had been supposed to play for the New York ProCricket team against Florida. But the night before the game, Selwyn Caesar, the USACA treasurer, is said to have called the three players at the request of Gladstone Dainty, the USACA president.
The three players were apparently warned that they would jeopardise their chances of playing for the USA if they took part in ProCricket. So, at the 11th hour, they withdrew from the ProCricket match against Florida. And subsequently all three did play for Team USA.
A representative of ProCricket confirmed that the three players had been considered for the New York team, but had withdrawn rather suddenly from the proceedings. There was no confirmation from any of the three that anyone had called them. But Staple's statement in his recent Cricinfo interview - that "the ProCricket 20-over competition has apparently begun reasonably successfully, [but] it has been decided that USA players cannot take part, which is a shame" - suggests that he would have liked to play ProCricket but someone told him not to.
The bulletin board claims that four people control the USACA - Dainty, Caesar, Akhtar Masood (a former president and a current member of the board) and Nasir Javed (the USA vice-captain and also a board member). Of the board's other officers, the First Vice-President, PK Guha, recently resigned from his position; the Second Vice-President, Mr Chai, has been privately described by the USACA leadership as something of a cypher; and Mr Refaie, the USACA secretary, has been on record as wanting to give ProCricket a chance. There are three NewYork-based board members - Sheldon Gomes, Gerald Singh and Paul DaSilva - but they are reportedly now boycotting most USACA proceedings, so the so-called "Gang of Four" has an automatic majority on the Board. There is, therefore, little hope for change unless it is imposed from outside, by Project USA or by ProCricket.