On May 14th, United States of America Cricket Association ISACA issued a notice asserting its role as the ICC-Recognized sanctioning body. "Any tournament involving USACA members with International and USA National players must be sanctioned by USACA," USACA noted in its memo to the various Leagues.
USACA further cautioned Regions, Leagues, Clubs and Players to assure themselves that any tournament they participate in with international players is properly sanctioned. The latest USACA guidance was focused on tournaments that featured international players. Domestic Tournaments that had no International participation appeared not to be a concern.
"US National Players should be aware that the ICC can impose Penalties and Prohibit them playing in ICC Tournaments if they are found playing in Unsanctioned Tournaments involving International Players," USACA noted.
Three days after the USACA warning, Pakistan Cricket Board announced that it was slapping a fine of roughly USD $5,000.00 on Wahab Riaz, Nasir Jamshed, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq and Shahzaib Hasan for playing ‘Disapproved Cricket’ in the United States. The five players appeared in the Friendship Cup T20, which also saw the participation of a large number of Team USA players. By all accounts, participants were appreciative of the Tournament. The quality of the competition and hospitality received special praise. However, the tournament was not sanctioned by USACA.
USACA, for its part, published a list containing three tournaments that were approved by USACA - the NTCA Memorial Day US T20, the NCCA Open T20 Tournament over the July 4th weekend, and the MCC Unity Cup 2014 over the Labor Day Weekend.
For years, USACA did not have a transparent sanctioning process. That all changed when the organization published sanctioning guidelines in 2010. But it is only in May of 2013 that very specific criteria and conditions were laid out and published on USACA.org.
Historically, organizers have not always paid adequate attention to the guidelines and monitoring is not very rigorous. As an example, the USACA policy says that the matches 'shall not be held, and shall not be described as being held under the auspices of USACA. That is, USACA’s name may not be used in the naming of the tournament or event.' A recent advertisement for the NTCA Memorial Day US T20 tournament makes no mention of the host league. But USACA's name appears three times in the copy.
|
