For nearly two years, the GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM was supposed to be a landmark event in U.S. Cricket. Here was where experts from across the world were supposed to meet and chart the future of U.s. Cricket for the third millenium, and develop working plans to promote junior cricket in North America.

It did not quite happen that way. The event that was supposed to be a bang, ended with scarcely a whimper.

How and why this happened is a long and painful story. But first, a look at the Symposium itself.

Picture a Development conference where 60% of the speakers and 90% of the audience fail to make an appearance, resulting in 60% of the program being cancelled.

For the handful of paying delegates, the first intimation that the conference might not be all they had paid for and taken three days off work for, came when they attempted to register on Sunday. There they learned that the 'confirmed' speakers: Keith Pont of ECB, Ross Turner of ACB and Toot Byron of Queensland Cricket Association, each acknowledged experts in the field of Cricket Development, would not be attending.

Furthermore, the three days would be condensed to one.

Where was everyone?

The WICB, also unaware of the truncation of the program, had done the Symposium the honor of supporting it in the persons of President, the Reverend Wes Hall, and Chief Development Officer Michael Seepersaud.

The Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers produced an interesting exhibit table, and an entertaining if shortened talk from Chairman Barrie Stuart-King.

Delegates were present from Argentina, Bermuda and Cayman.

But those attending from The United States numbered but three! And this was supposed to be a Symposium on the future of U.S. cricket, and had been so proclaimed through innumerable announcements on the USACA and CCAM Web sites! Indeed, Robert Weekes of CCAM and Dr. Atul Rai of the USACA had gone to great pains to hold up the Symposium as the place where many of the fundamental questions regarding the future of cricket in the USA and the Americas would be fully addressed, and plans and blueprints developed. "Wait till we get to Orlando" was a refrain heard, from USACA leadership, by many impatient critics of USACA who were asking whether any serious thought was being given to the future of cricket in the USA. And after all this-- why this almost total non-appearance of U.S. participants at this Symposium-- were all those pronouncements simply a mass of hot air, devoid of subtance or content?

To make matters worse, two of the three U.S. participants at the Global Symposium were persons who had previously been declared persona non grata for the Symposium and anything having to do with US cricket, by none other than the USACA-- they were paying attendees from United States Junior Cricket. This 'unrecognized' Association, while not being invited to contribute at the podium, had gone to the trouble of paying for an exhibit table and furnishing it with a lively exhibit including newsletters, pictorial and video presentations-- a little bit more than the USACA and its associated organizations, whose exhibits, pictorials, videos and newsletter exhibits at the Symposium amounted to a big fat ZERO.

So where was the USACA, which had prominently advertised the Global Symposium on its Web site-- and whose announcement still appears on its Web page?

Not a single person was attending from the USACA board, although at least two board members were said to be in Orlando. As to the USACA executive, President Atul Rai made a brief appearance before rushing off early to catch a plane, and the Treasurer also attended, but at his own expense.

Of the other members of the USACA Board and Executive, and the large U.S. contingent that was present in Orlando to organize the Americas Under-15 Tournament supposed to be running in tandem with the Symposium in Orlando, there was not a trace.

Substitute speakers included Michael Seepersaud of the WICB who was attending as a paying delegate, but was co-opted to make a presentation "Initiatives in Coaching Development". This turned out to be an interesting look at the problems facing West Indies Cricket development and their work on solving them.

Considered at one time to be the centerpiece of the original Global Symposium program, "Junior Development in the United States" was presented by Vish Lekhram, Chairman of the USACA-JYDP program, assisted by Steve Hooper. The latter, a protégé of USJC, was recently 'discovered' by USACA and flown in at short notice from Utah with a field promotion to the rank of 'Chairman National Schools Program' and instructions to make a presentation.

It was indeed fortunate for Vish, who appeared to be 'winging it', that the understandably bewildered looking "Hoop" was on hand. To give Mr. Hooper his due, while opening with the promising line -"I don't know anything about cricket, but…", he did show that he could render a decent power point presentation about the possibilities of junior cricket programs as potential profit centers in Utah.

Another substitution was a short presentation by Shafiq Jadavji of US Cricket.com, on Internet communication and its advantages. Under Jadavji's stewardship, USCRICKET.COM has taken a somewhat equivocal position on US cricket, steering clear of controversial editorialising that might offend the powers-that-be at USACA, but at the same time expanding its coverage and encouraging in-depth discussion of US cricket issues on its forums. According to one amused observer, Shafiq Jadavji seemed to be doing his level best to represent a media frenzy, snapping picture after picture at the best angles to avoid all the empty chairs, but he (and Uscricket.com) must obviously have had second thoughts, since no pictures and few reports on the Symposium itself have appeared on its Web site.

The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the opening speech by Reverend Hall, who in a few concise well chosen sentences, cut straight to the heart of the American cricket dilemma-- virtually no Americans playing the game, and even less Americans learning the game. Reverend Hall pointed out a simple truth-- that until the American media and businesses can be persuaded that this is not just a game for recent immigrants and the children of immigrants, there is no real hope of serious progress.

A memorable quote came when discussing the subject of academies. An unstructured academy in an unstructured development program according to Reverend Hall, is simply "ignorance on stilts"!

At this point, the attendees were jolted upright in their seats as Rev. Hall launched into a none too gentle chiding of ICC for their failure to consult and communicate with WICB regarding their 'plans' for the governance of cricket in the United States of America! An explanation was demanded of the next speaker, Andrew Eade, ICC Global Development Manager, who was to speak on the 'Role of the ICC Development Program'.

Mr. Eade began his talk to the full attention of the modest assemblage. While promising a full reply, Mr. Eade showed considerable political adroitness by talking around the subject, but essentially to the effect that all would be revealed in due course and the WICB would be the first to know. The Reverend Hall did not appear to be much mollified.

The remainder of Mr. Eade's talk concentrated on where all the development money goes, and why the pot of gold always appears to be at the other end of the rainbow. Arthur Anderson could not have done it better.

Although full marks, or even a passing grade, can hardly be presented to CCAM in light of the overall fiasco, the symposium did undeniably take place, and an E for effort should be awarded to Robert Weekes, Irene Hanley, and others who had strugged to keep the event alive. It is true that, in its haste to placate all disputants in the issues involving U.S. Cricket, the CCAM had been guilty of its own brand of duplicity and double-dealing, and had alienated many in the cricket community in this country with its alleged high-handedness and skullduggery. Its biggest mistake, in retrospect, appears to have been its willingness to make USJC "walk the plank" and be barred from management of the Symposium which the USJC had originally planned and configured-- CCAM's organizational abilities were clearly nowhere near equal to the task, and the USACA's "support", as CCAM's new-found "ally", proved to be as elusive and mercurial as predicted by the doom-sayers.

It is, clearly the USACA which deserves the major share of the blame in making the Global Development Symposium such an exercise in futility for U.S. cricket. After having done its utmost to have the Symposium banned from U.S. soil because an "illegal" organization (the USJC) was producing it, it grandly announced its full support and cooperation after it was clear that the USJC had been expelled-- and then, failed to provide the modicum of support that was needed from a host cricket association in its own country. While paying lip-service to the idea of the Symposium, and even praising it on its Web site as a place where the future of U.S. cricket was going to be discussed and determined, it made no effort to send either delegates or participants to the Symposium. The report that the USACA President was at this "most important of all Symposiums for the future of US cricket" barely long enough to catch a plane out of town may be apocryphal-- but it symbolizes the attitude towards US cricket that seems to characterize many in the leadership of the USACA.

One can only, in despair, go back to the question that was supposed to be the theme of the Global Symposium-- "Whither American Cricket, from here?" The question was left hanging over the almost empty conference room, like the enigmatic smile of the ICC (which, quipped one observer, should have been re-named the "Imperial Cheshire Cat").