(We are reprinting parts of a long e-mail sent out by Mr. Lesley Lowe, President of a major cricket league in New York and Board member of the USA Cricket Association. The views expressed by Mr. Lowe are his own, and are not meant to reflect the views of CRICINFO USA, USACA, or any other individual associated with either organization. But we consider it an important contribution to the USACA debate because of Mr. Lowe's nearly 30 years' involvement with US cricket. Deb K. Das, USA Coordinator, CRICINFO). ...

Last summer[1999], the Board met at the Courtyard Marriott for new elections and a new executive body was elected. Everyone hoped that there was finally going to be democracy within USACA. But has been more than 1 year and USACA is the absolute worst than it has ever been. Any shred of democracy that remained when the previous body was there has been completely wiped out.

It was very pleasing… to see members of the Board cast away their differences to come together and elect a new executive body thinking that they were doing the right thing by both themselves and their clubs. Today that same Board has absolutely zero power, because certain people within the Executive and a couple of Directors choose to railroad USACA…..

When Naseer Khan was President of USACA, there were four people calling the shots in US cricket…. as though it was a McDonalds franchise. If a player from your team or league ever happened to play for the US team, it was as if these guys did you a big favour and you owed them big…. you would hear these exotic names of players who were selected from Chicago, Missouri, California, New Jersey, and Washington, among other states, and you began to wonder how come your guy wasn't selected knowing fully well his talents and capabilities. …

When [Syed] Masood became President, there were also 4 people calling the shots …[Yet]…Nationwide elections were held in which more than 250 clubs participated. The first instance such an event had occurred in the history of US cricket. [and] … the warring factions, USACA and USCF {United States Cricket Federation} were brought together at an historic meeting at the Newark Hilton.

[Meanwhile] more than $300,000 of sponsorship money was acquired to cover the cost of the US team in Malaysia .....[While] it is no secret that more than $100,000 of that money was "blown" in free trips all across the country for insignificant people and other "miscellaneous" wastes that are still unaccounted for, .... …monies were readily available for meetings, and these were regularly held in all parts of the country. If meetings were not possible, there were an abundance of conference calls which were very positive because it kept everyone in touch with each other and afforded them the opportunity to deal with important matters on a regular basis and not allow things to get out of hand. Even though… meetings were sometimes very heated, they were also very productive. It allowed everyone to actively take part in matters at hand.

The present USACA is also being run by 4 men, and the similarities end there… Since this new [executive] committee was elected, cricket in the US has gone from fair to absolutely rotten. USACA is completely broke, there are no long-term programs in place, and any recent developments / achievements have been pursued by independent individuals / organizations posing as 'representatives' of USACA hoping to gain favours… hopefully, large monetary ones. …

At another meeting at the Courtyard Marriott [in New York] earlier this year, the Board was told about a trip to the UK by a national team which would be completely financed by a few large corporations who were willing to become involved in US cricket. We were made to understand that it was a good way to groom a team for future big tournaments. It was a grand exercise in public relations but an absolute financial disaster….

I have been reading …e-mails …for months now asking about the finances, selection, UK tour, appointment of an auditor, etc. etc. etc. and I notice that there are no replies forthcoming …I am not surprised. I believe that the plan is to delay until the elections are held ….I have seen an email from another fellow director lately asking about the finances regarding this tour and I have yet to see the reply. I guess we'll never see such a reply and, instead, our director-friend will get a personal phone call from someone higher up to "cool it" for a bit until they can come up with something good enough.

Naseer Khan lasted for a long time because none of us were smart enough to get rid of him, [Syed] Masood lasted longer than he should because he was allowed to cling on to power, but eventually fell flat on his face. … The present body running the affairs of USACA …. are too blind to see what happened to their predecessors who never believed in 'fair play'.

It's not cricket, gentlemen!

Lesley Lowe