Dainty 'disappointed' by unanimous vote to expel USACA

USA Cricket Association president Gladstone Dainty has urged USACA and its members to "continue to fight" after the organisation was expelled by the ICC on Thursday as the Associate member governing body in America.

"USACA is disappointed by the vote of the ICC membership to expel USACA but not surprised," Dainty told ESPNcricinfo via email. "The ICC has spent years trying to find a basis to expel USACA and replace it with an organisation the ICC controls."

USACA had made a desperate final plea last Monday by sending a letter to the ICC's member boards asking them to vote no in the resolution that had been tabled for USACA's expulsion. Both in that letter and in Dainty's statement to ESPNcricinfo, the organisation says the ICC's initial claims of "financial irregularities", which were a contributing factor to USACA's suspension in 2015, "were false". According to Dainty, even though USACA acquiesced to some of the demands made by the ICC regarding the shape of a new constitution, he says USACA should have had the autonomy to make its own final decision rather than bow to the ICC.

"The ICC tolerates no dissent," Dainty said. "They made it clear that if USACA did not do as the ICC wanted and adopt a new constitution exactly as written by the ICC, USACA would be expelled. This week the ICC made good on that threat, with the backing of an arbitration process governed by rules the ICC wrote and an arbitrator it picked and paid for."

Dainty also claimed the ICC's main motivation for chucking USACA out was to exploit the financial potential in the USA. However, Dainty says that rather than USA benefiting, it is only the outside entrepreneurs who are doing so.

"The US cricket community is diverse and noisy - two things the ICC does not understand and cannot tolerate," Dainty wrote. "The ICC is spending $2.4 million this year to set up a new national governing body - that is 8 times the annual budget the ICC previously allotted for USACA. What are the ICC's motives all of a sudden to throw so much money at the US? The only purpose of this money is to buy loyalty, to stifle dissent and to ensure that the ICC staff - few of whom look like, or even come from, the US cricket community - remain firmly in charge of US cricket.

"The USA is the largest untapped market for cricket in the world. The ICC wants to make sure that the ICC and its powerful Full Member nations control and profit from that community - at the expense of those of us who are actually here."

USACA had previously threatened to take the ICC to court in the event of expulsion. Although Dainty did not explicitly state that those plans will be followed through, he hinted that USACA will not give up just yet.

"USACA will continue to fight for the US cricket community and its diversity," Dainty wrote. "We urge all members of the US cricket community to do the same - to insist that those who lead US cricket going forward reflect our diverse community and are committed to US cricket - and not the ICC and its allies."