The USA Cricket Association (USACA) general elections have once again been rescheduled and are now set for April 14. The announcement by the USACA board to push back the elections is the latest in a mounting list of delays for elections which are now almost a year overdue. No reason was given for the delay.
The elections will be held at the USACA Annual General Meeting at the Westin Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
A USACA press release states that all of USACA’s member leagues are eligible to submit nominations for board positions by March 12, but only the 15 league presidents whose leagues are in “good standing” will be allowed to attend the AGM.
The USACA board recently voted to make 32 of its member leagues ineligible to vote in the upcoming elections.
The current board’s three-year term should have ended on March 29, 2011 but a March 31 announcement was made by the board that elections would be held on October 15. As that date approached, several attempts to hold a board meeting in order to lay out a process for elections were postponed.
Before long, the highly controversial compliance audit review of USACA’s member leagues was commissioned by the board which further stalled elections.
Elections were constitutionally mandated to take place no later than November 30, 2011. However, at an October 22 meeting in Florida, members of the board approved a plan which laid out a timeline for elections to take place by December 21.
At a November 17 board meeting, compliance review auditor Robert Chance stated that he needed more time to collect information regarding the eligibility of leagues. The board met again on December 3 and decided to push back elections three months with a date set for March 17, 2011.
The results of Chance’s compliance audit were made public on February 10. On February 26, the board voted to make more than two-thirds of member leagues ineligible to vote. By the time of the newly scheduled election date of April 14, the current board will have been in place a year and 16 days longer than their three-year term limit.
Former Cricket Canada CEO Atul Ahuja, who had earlier stated his intentions of running for USACA president, issued a pair of press releases last week to announce that he will now boycott the USACA elections.
“Team Ahuja unanimously condemns the arbitrary exclusion of two-thirds of the US Cricket leagues from voting in the upcoming elections,” a release from Ahuja said. “The manipulation of the electoral process in this manner is bound to bring further disrepute to the administration of the sport.
“Protesting the exclusion of 32 of the 47 leagues from voting, Team Ahuja has unanimously decided to boycott participation in the upcoming US Cricket election. Team Ahuja reiterates that the role of a governing body is to include and not exclude the vast majority of stakeholders and custodians of cricket in the United States. (ESPN Cricinfo)