The 2010 USA Cricket Association AGM was held in Dallas on Saturday, April 17 2010, with a strong message of merit based incentives to the regions and greater funding for development.

The AGM was attended by roughly 30 leaders and administrators.  The proceedings were mostly official and extremely cordial, leaving aside the usual trading of barbs, mostly in jest, between the New York and non-New York administrators.

Among the attendees was a large contingent from the host league (North Texas Cricket Association) and current and past administrators of the Central West Region.   The warm hospitality of the hosts, especially Mr. Ahmed Jeddy and Ms. Anees Jeddy, was much appreciated.

Pic (Right): USA Cricket Association President Gladstone Dainty delivers his opening address.  To the right are Ahmed Jeddy, Chik Masood, Nasir Javed, Tony Gilkes, John Thickett and Krish Persaud

President Gladstone Dainty opened the proceedings hoping that he could address the audience next year as “Ladies and Gentlemen” instead of “Gentlemen.”  Mr. Dainty regretted that there were no women in the hall and he urged all to make women’s cricket an integral part of their plans going forward.

Mr. Dainty said that he was grateful for a board that was “thoughtful and intense” and acknowledged the efforts of the board members and the various sub-committees in bringing about incremental changes and putting in place new policies and procedures.

Mr. Dainty admitted that a lot of work remained to be done and that the success of USA Cricket rested on a combination of bottom-up and top-down initiatives.  Mr. Dainty said that the board and the CEO were working very hard on revenue growth and they would increasinly rely on the regions and leagues for deployment of the resulting funds at the grassroots.

Answering a specific question on whether USACA would provide funds for turf wicket development by a league, Mr. Dainty said that supplemental resources from USACA would be available for all noteworthy regional initiatives.   But he emphasized that the leagues and regions should take a business-like approach and prepare comprehensive and viable business plans that relied on a combination of funding sources.   He also said USACA would not only provide monetary help, it would also lend its weight in non-monetary areas such as issuing letters, official endorsements and authorizations needed in order to secure grounds.  In a subsequent address, Don Lockerbie explained how he and his board were already working with several cities to secure grounds (more on that later).

As USA Cricket became a beneficiary of larger amount of funds from the commercial deals and from ICC during 2010 and after, he said the more resources would be allocated to regions and leagues that were found to be most effective and proactive through the use of performance metrics.

Pic (Left): USA Cricket Association CEO Don Lockerbie, John Aaron and Manaf Mohammed at USACA AGM

The great disparity among the regions in terms of overall development, alignment with the ICC and USA Cricket’s objectives, and the overall governance and communication processes was a recurring theme at the AGM - a topic that will be covered in a separate article.

Perhaps the most engrossing presentation was the one by the Treasurer, John Thickett, whose job it was to summarize the financial state of affairs of USA Cricket.   The presentation lasted two hours and touched on several themes - the most notable of which was the deployment of key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarking within the regions in line with ICC.

Mr. Thickett provided hope to the audience when he showed USA Cricket’s upward trend in revenue from $88K for Full Year 2007 to $460K for Full Year 2009.   A large portion of that increase was owing to an ICC Administrative Grant and other ICC grants (roughly $285K) - demonstrating USACA’s successful compliance with ICC requirements.  

Of course, the costs too increased substantially during 2009 - owing mainly to increased administrative costs ($272K), and increased cost of participating in domestic and international competitions ($388K).  Only $5K or less than 1% was spent on development of cricket.

Understandably, there was some consternation when this breakdown was presented.   But Mr. Dainty explained that the allocation for development was expected to change drastically as new revenue flowed in through the anticipated commercial deals.   (Mr. Thickett explained later that the amount allocated for development in 2010 was in the $300K range and efforts were on to ramp up development spend to 7-digit numbers).

Mr. Thickett explained that the higher administrative costs were the outcome of the hiring of CEO, the cost of maintaining an office for USA Cricket and the cost of travel to meetings. 

Pic (Right): Treasurer John Thickett presents to the AGM

Both Mr. Thickett and Mr. Dainty explained that the administrative expenses were like start-up costs and ICC had given an administrative grant of $160K relating to these costs.  Mr. Thickett further emphasized that hiring a CEO was mandated by the ICC, and was expected to yield rich dividends once the commercial arrangements that were currently being evaluated by the Commercial Opportunities Committee, were consummated.  In a bid to assuage the fears of any remaining skeptics, Mr. Thickett explained that these efforts were already starting to generate additional revenue and that the 2010 year-to-date revenue was already in the $660K range.

Mr. Thickett also cited the progress made in repaying creditors - some dating back to 2003 - even as overall payables grew during 2009, largely due to the drawdown of a Line of Credit from ICC.

The Treasurer explained that in line with ICC’s expectations, USA Cricket had prepared a goal-oriented 2010 budget driven by key performance indicators (KPIs) such as junior players and competitions, senior men’s and women’s participation, educated and accredited umpires and coaches, cricket education, and facilities such as grounds with turf pitches and designated practice facilities.  

Mr. Thickett stated that ICC’s funding was driven by these metrics and urged the regions to be prompt in turning around the survey responses and budgetary reports.   Mr. Hemant Buch noted that the ICC budgetary process was a tremendous planning tool and had helped his region greatly in the development of its strategic plan.  Mr. Thickett later presented some noteworthy metrics (to be covered in a separate article).

One of the low-points of the AGM was the revelation that only two regions (Central West and Western) submitted their 2010 budgets in response to a USACA request.  Even those budgets were handed past the deadline that ICC had imposed on USACA.   While this did not adversely impact USACA’s compliance with the ICC, the Treasurer hoped that the regions would embrace the fiscal and budgetary discipline that was expected of USACA.   Mr. Thickett said that each of the USACA regions were bigger than most affiliate and indeed some associate members of ICC and that they should develop processes in line with their stature.

The Treasurer noted that considerable progress had been made in the areas of transparency and that USACA had posted its prior tax returns from 2002 to 2008 and certain other financial information on the USACA website.   He also held conference calls with Regional Treasurer that covered topics such as opening regional bank accounts, budgeting, fundraising ideas, use of Quickbooks (for which he had negotiated a preferential rate for the regions), etc.

Perhaps most significantly, he announced that USACA had gained charitable status in New York.

The Treasurer’s presentation also touched on other topics such as membership fees, 2010 goals and benchmarking and was followed by reports by the CEO and the Regional Representatives - all of which will be covered in Part 2 of this report.

[Part 2 of DreamCricket.com’s coverage of the USA Cricket Association AGM.]

Increase in Membership Fees

A considerable debate ensued when the Treasurer, John Thickett, touched upon the work of the sub-committee that worked to develop new membership fees and insurance coverage. 

The new club member fees of $100 per club without liability insurance and $200 with liability insurance, constitute a substantive increase from the previous year when clubs paid $30.  

Pic (Right): John Thickett, USACA Treasurer, presents to the AGM.

Certain members (including this author) expressed reservations on the lack of communication on the rationale for the increase, while some others questioned the quantum of the increase.  

In response, members of the USACA board offered their thoughts on the question of the quantum of the increase. 

Firstly, Raj Padhi of the Western Region, who was part of the sub-committee that reviewed the membership fees along with Krish Persaud and John Thickett, explained that prior to the increase, a club was paying $30 in membership fees and (on average) about $125 for liability insurance (i.e. a total of $155).   Mr. Padhi said that he had negotiated a lower cost insurance plan and the present total cost per club inclusive of insurance came to $200, which was only $45 more on average.  In addition, the new plan offered an early payment rebate of 25% or $50 to the region.   After considering the rebate, this was a win for the clubs and regions, Mr. Padhi explained.  

Certain members offered a counterpoint stating that the aforementioned logic could not be applied to leagues that had opted out of USACA negotiated insurance coverage.   They said that they had good reasons to opt out - they had better or cheaper insurance coverage than what USACA had negotiated or found the insurance cover to be excessive when compared to their needs.

In this context, Sankar Renganathan of Great Lakes Cricket Conference suggested a per-player insurance plan instead of a per-club plan as a way of realizing further savings. 

In an attempt to bring things to a closure, Mr. Dainty took to the podium and said that the sub-committee would remain open to constructive inputs on achieving additional savings on  insurance premiums. Mr. Dainty was emphatic in saying that USACA was not going to sugarcoat the issue of  the fee increase.  He said that the intent of the sub-committee was to adjust and increase the club membership fee.  The fee, which was pegged at $30 for over a decade, had remained very low for too long  -  a point that many board members agreed with.   For a club which had 15 players, the new $100 fee was still affordable at less than $7 per annum per player.  Mr. Dainty said that clubs may petition for additional time but there was no question of a rollback.  He said that the rebate of $25 or $50 to the region, as applicable, was a welcome outcome, but really was incidental to the entire exercise.

Talking about the impact on USACA's finances, Mr. Thickett said that roughly $30K or less than 7% of USACA revenue in 2009 was from membership fees, a very low percentage when compared to other associates and affiliates.  The present increase would certainly help to increase USACA's financial capacity.   Mr. Thickett noted that one of the things on his list was the development of individual membership options and a way for members to use credit cards to pay fees.

As the discussion shifted from the tactical to the strategic, Mr. Lockerbie offered comparative analysis of member fees for various sports.  The point he tried to make was that a healthy level of internal funding was a factor whenever external funding bodies were approached.   He said that USOC was potentially a funding source now that cricket was a recognized as an olympic sport. 

Mr. Lockerbie said that cricket should study what the other sports are doing and create a masterplan for membership fees and benefits that was in line with other olympic sports in USA. As an example, he said that membership cost for badminton was in the range of $25 per player.   For team sports, such as soccer, the fee was much higher. 

In response to Mr. Renganathan's suggestion that any plan to imitate other sports' member fee structure should be carefully studied and any migration should be carefully thought out, Mr. Lockerbie said that he was not advocating for an immediate change to a radically different model but was expressing his views in favor of an effective long-range plan.  

When presented in this manner by the Treasurer, the CEO, the President and others, there was broader support for the increase from those assembled despite the general dissatisfaction about lack of communication. 

On this last point, the Treasurer noted that the regional representatives were informed of the increase and asked the leagues to be more demanding of their regional representatives and their directors.   Mr. Dainty too acknowledged that there were weak links in communication, and that this was was one of the biggest challenges for USACA.

Commercial Opportunities

Speaking on the topic of commercial opportunities, Mr. Thickett said that Mr. Lockerbie would provide more details shortly, but said that as a member of the committee that was vetting and developing opportunities, it was his hope that USACA would soon have stable long-term cash flow which would allow it to thrive.

Even though Mr. Lockerbie and several other speakers hinted that the signing of a deal was imminent, there was no indication of what, with whom, or what kind of deal USACA was signing.  One speaker said that a deal was in legal review and felt that USACA could potentially make an announcement within days.   But on the details of the deal, his lips were sealed.

Benchmarking

Mr. Thickett spent the last part of his presentation canvassing support for KPIs and benchmarking.  "To improve ourselves, we have to measure where we are today as a nation and within each region," Mr. Thickett said.  

As an example, he showed a slide which illustrated that New York Region had roughly 3.5 clubs per cricket ground (implying crowding) whereas Atlantic Region had the best ratio of all regions at just over 1 team per ground.   He said this type of data could prove useful for each region in prioritizing where they spend their human and financial resources.

Talking about junior involvement, Mr. Thickett said USA as a whole was weaker when compared to other associate countries in regards to the ratio of number of juniors playing cricket to the number of seniors.   Likewise, when looking at the regions, he said that 2008 data showed NYR, South East and the West were leading in junior cricket initiatives.   The remaining regions should act fast to improve their metric in this area in order to close the gap and correct the imbalance, Mr. Thickett noted.  Otherwise, he cautioned, it would prove harder for the national team to be representative of the country.

Mr. Dainty said that other associates were particularly focused on the number of local-born players in the national team - an area that received 3% weightage in ICC’s grants.   He brought up the fact that none of the senior US players were actually US-born. 

Manaf Mohammed said that all but three members of the U-19 team were US-born and that was an encouraging sign.  However, it is imperative that these cricketers continue on to the senior team, he noted.

Following that observation, once again, the discussion gravitated towards how seriously the regions were taking these kinds of metrics and benchmarking measures.  As an independent observer, I sensed some dissonance within the regions.  It was a fact that some regions had not been diligent in submitting all of the information that was requested.  In hind sight, not submitting complete information may have resulted in USACA losing out on an additional $100K in ICC funding.

In this context, it is equally important for USACA to do more to build bridges and invite all the non-affiliate leagues and clubs into USACA fold.   There are entire cities and leagues missing from USACA’s list of member leagues.   This leads me to believe that several of these metrics could benefit from the inclusion of non-affiliate leagues.  In fact, the non-affiliated leagues in Philadelphia and NY/NJ alone could lead to a substantial increase in each of the metrics. 

2009 and 2010 ICC Capital & Development Grant Scorecard Factors

Source: USACA 

Playing standard (senior men’s International ranking) - 40% importance 
Senior playing numbers (men’s & women’s competition teams) - 15% 
Junior playing numbers (teams) - 10% 
Cricket grounds (4% turf, 4% permanent, 2% total) - 10% 
Junior involvement participants - 6% 
Coaches (3% qualified/education courses, 3% active) - 6% 
Umpires (2% qualified/education courses, 2% active) - 4% 
Employees (2 part-time = 1 full-time) - 3% 
Junior/local development over time (i.e. number of senior playing team through national junior programs/competition or lived 75% 
of lifetime in-country) - 3% 
Non-ICC income generated - 3%
Total - 100%

Part 3 of DreamCricket.com’s coverage of the USA Cricket Association AGM - USA Cricket Association President's Report

Comments

In the President’s Annual Report that was circulated at the AGM, Mr. Gladstone Dainty observed that USACA is communicating better, is becoming more purposeful and is moving rapidly in a positive direction.  He noted that this was possible “by empowering more stakeholders.”

“USACA still has pressing need for more administrative, technical, and financial resources to carry out the mandate of the organization.  The vastness of the USACA territory, the high operating costs, and lack of suitable dedicated cricket facilities are highlighted due to these deficiencies,” Mr. Dainty wrote.

On a positive note, he wrote: “We have succesfully overcoming some of our obstacles by improving our cash flow problems.” [sic] and "we are exploring new revenue generating avenues and the future seems very bright.”

Just as he had said in his speech, Mr. Dainty reaffirmed his confidence in his board in the annual report: “The USACA Board is evolving into a thoughtful, skillful and deliberate team and I feel confident that their actions and directions given to the CEO will result into a solid foundation for progress of USA cricket.”

Progress since 2008

Expressing satisfaction with the progress made since the elections in March 2008, Mr. Dainty listed the various accomplishments in his report:
 

• All Regional Boards have been established and partially functional;
• USACA Executive Board meetings are being held per schedule;
• An office has been established in Miami Beach, Florida;
• A CEO has been appointed and he has enhanced our capabilities;
• Several committees have been commissioned and some are functional; and
• A five year developmental plan has been completed with some phase being implemented.

Describing the status of USACA's relationship with the ICC Americas, Mr. Dainty noted: “Regional Manager Martin Vieira and his staff are valuable resources for USACA.  Mr. Andy Pick and Wendell Copping have made themselves available for a range of service including high performance coaching methods, techniques and education.”

Talking about the growth of the New York City Public Schools cricket program, he wrote that “it is imperative that USACA allocate more attention and other resources to this program.”   Separately, when New York Region’s Selwyn Ceasar spoke of PSAL and Newcomers High School, Mr. Dainty commended the effort and asked if the cricketers were playing age-group cricket as well.   Echoing the same theme elsewhere, NewYorkCricket.com reported on April 19th that Mr. Dainty was ‘disappointed that so far no players from those programs have yet won places in the national Under-15 and Under-19 teams.’

In his Annual Report, Mr. Dainty listed the many accomplishments of USA Cricket on the field including the success of the senior team in progressing to Division 4 and of the U-19 team progressing to the World Cup.

What should we expect in 2010

Mr. Dainty wrote in his annual report that he was working with the WICB President on “a proposal to host regional and international competitions in the USA for the benefit of the Americas Region.”  Adding “I am hopeful that real soon we will reward them [Lauderhill stadium] with cricket at the highest level.” 

Speaking about the much talked about New Zealand versus Sri Lanka T20 series at the AGM, Mr. Dainty sounded positive and said that negotiations were in progress on that as well as several commercial deals.   

Although he did not elaborate on this subject further at the AGM, Mr. Dainty was more forthcoming about the negotiations in the article that appeared yesterday on NewYorkCricket.com where he was quoted as saying: “If you ask me I will be more inclined to say the chances are greater for it [the NZ vs SL series] to be staged than not.” 

The website provided more pointers on the commercial deals: ‘USACA and Cricket New Zealand, the ruling body for the sport in that country, which has a partnership arrangement with the former, are collaborating to stage the ODI series which would be complimented by matches between the United States national team and one from the West Indies territories.’

‘An investor is providing some of the funding and television rights are shopped around for the games,’ Mr. Dainty told the website.  He also spoke of a separate deal for T20 cricket.  'CEO Don Lockerbie is working on a number projects outside of the Cricket New Zealand arrangement.  One includes a deal with the NACL group to stage all Twenty20 games involving the national team in the United States.’