New Constitution Needs Whipping Into Shape

By Orin Davidson
Emerging out of the current ceaseless gloomy pre winter days, is the warm news that the new constitution to govern America’s cricket is about to be dispatched for processing to the national affiliated clubs around the country.

And with it comes the realization that a new date has been fixed for the executive elections by March next year.

It may have been eight months late in coming, but in our case it is better late than never.

This constitution had become the latest of the malaise of problems to afflict United States cricket in the last three years.

Due to the tardiness in making it a reality, the United States dodged another catastrophe, even bigger than the squashing of Project USA and our team’s failure to qualify for World Cup 2007.

We could’ve been slapped with a complete shutdown if the original mandate of a November 2006 elections date was enforced by the ICC via a lengthy ban.

If the current USACA administration did not perform to expectations in its existence, it certainty topped everything by influencing the world ruling body to relax its demand.

Now that the matter of a ban has been averted, the next issue at hand is making the constitution useful for the eventual good of United States cricket.

The draft as was displayed on the USACA website was nothing more than an attempt at being different from the existing document.

It was found wanting in key areas and also has a number of implementations which have no right being part of an improvement on the original.

As was stressed in previous editorials, one glaring oversight was the absence of provisions for regionalizing the administration of the sport in the eight active areas.

We will not again digress on the benefits to be had from such an arrangement, but it seems the only way to go, to allow for a collective approach to development at the grassroots, intermediary and senior levels.

Every other country in the cricket world has affiliate bodies administering the sport in the branches that form the national body.

And they do not use such a system for the sake of political expediency. The reality is that it works and will be no different here in America.

If that change is not in place now, the- powers- that -be have two weeks to make it right, lest the whole exercise of a new constitution become another failed undertaking.

One encouraging feature of the draft is the creation of a Chief Executive Officer position by appointment and the elimination of the presidency.

It makes little sense to have a CEO and president at the same time, lest decision makers are interested in duplication.

Should this new measure be implemented, we would have one up on the ICC which still sees it fit to have the said two positions.

It makes no sense whatsoever.

The onus now is on the USACA decision makers to follow up on that sound measure and make the entire constitution worthy of the paper it was written on.
Orin Davidson Column Homepage