The International Cricket Council (ICC) after the conclusion of a 4-day Annual conference on July 22 (Monday), formed a 3-member panel to review the poor management of the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA. As a result, the USA Cricket (USAC) receives a notice of a 12-month suspension from the ICC Board to take corrective action. The West Indies and the USA jointly hosted the tournament in June 2024, and the ICC is set to review the outcome of the tournament.
Especially, the drop-in pitch in New York, which was earlier developed in Florida and dropped in before the commencement of the tournament, received severe criticism for its inconsistent bounce and unpredictable nature, which resulted in low-scoring contests.
A review committee consists of members such as Lawson Naidoo who comes from South Africa, ICC’s Deputy Chair Imran Khawaja from Singapore, and Roger Twose from New Zealand to look into this issue.
Why did ICC issue suspension notice to USAC?
Mainly, the ICC has taken this decision after the international cricket boards faced a loss of USD 20 million for organizing matches in New York, Florida, and Dallas.
The tournament’s cost in the US exceeded the planned budget by a large margin. USAC’s mismanagement forced two officials of the ICC to decide to resign. However, they were asked to remain in their position until the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 in Bangladesh and Champions Trophy 2025.
But, Chris Tetley— the head of the ICC events, and Claire Furlong — the general manager of the marketing and communications department, have resigned from their reputable posts. Few sources point out that these two officials have decided to resign from their posts before the World Cup. Recently, both Chris and Chaire attended the ICC’s meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
A suspension notice to the USA and Chile Cricket
Despite exhibiting a stunning performance in the T20 World Cup 2024, USA cricket faces a massive blow as the ICC has handed a suspension notice. Additionally, Chile Cricket has been formally issued a notice. Both USA and Chile Cricket have been provided 12 months to fully align themselves by solving their current issues and satisfying the ICC’s Associate Membership Criteria.
Also, the USA Cricket has violated the Associate Members Rules on two occasions. First, they do not have a full-time CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and second, they do not have recognition from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
These reports came into the spotlight when the USAC had been facing its internal struggles and the board of directors started making accusations about corruption and harassment of chairman Venu Pisike. As the USA Cricket is not in a position to comment on this issue, the topic adds fuel to the existing concerns, which could lead to a massive collapse or breakdown for the nation’s Board.
According to ICC, both USA Cricket and Chile Cricket don’t have any effective and well-organized system to manage and coordinate their governance and administrative responsibilities. In simpler words, the ICC evaluates its structure and system for running the operations and believes it is not suitable or sufficient for its main objectives.
Conclusion
Even after facing several issues while hosting the league stages of the T20 World Cup 2024, the USA created history in the debut season of the tournament by defeating Pakistan. They also qualified for the Super 8s, and it was the 7th time that an Associate Member team qualified from the group stages of the T20 World Cup.
Over the past few years, the USA Cricket has been in a state of crisis, certified by the termination of four CEOs. It depicts a scene where the USAC has been facing financial constraints, organizational instability, and sudden changes in leadership with the USA Cricket.
It is expected that the USA Cricket will be supporting Cricket Chile in resolving the issues to meet the ICC standards. In the case of USA Cricket, a Normalisation Committee will be established with representatives from the board and management to ensure that they follow the plan to fulfill ICC requirements.
Moreover, the ICC Board has the authority to suspend or remove the members of the USA Cricket, if they do not meet the quality standards. These are the main steps taken by the ICC to help USA Cricket and Cricket Chile improve or face severe consequences for not doing so. Finally, the USA Cricket has one year to resolve its internal issues. Various reports highlight the fact that the USAC has overreached its budget heavily while hosting the T20 World Cup 2024. However, the ICC made it clear that an in-depth review would be conducted and take severe actions if required