Check out:  http://thirdmaan.blogspot.com/

After Wednesday's match, I will post five questions that PDP or anyone else can ask Sew or Robin

@ Sympathizer

Sew is the manager and advisor-general and Masood must be the physio with his hands in his pocket

@Anti666:  You are welcome to address your questions and concerns directly instead of speculating!  If you want to discuss on "whose grace dreamcricket perhaps depends," please feel free to email us on content @ dreamcricket.com or on venu @ dreamcricket.com.  

All:  The debate is all good.  We have this blog for exactly that purpose.  Observe the  code - nothing inappropriate, no abuse.

Venu

@ Coach

US has enough talent to go to the 2012 U19 WC but when they get there nobody wants to see a repeat of the disastrous 2010 U19 WC where they finished 15 of 16.  There has to be accountability for that and changes to make sure that that doesnt happen.  The fact that the coach then is the selector now and manager as well is a real concern that just cant be WTFed away by you and others.  Part of what people are (or should be) concerned about is are we playing the best 11 each and every match.  The answer isnt -- well we are winning so WTF.  We wont get anywhere good with that kind of denial.  I think there are serious questions as to why we have the 14 we have when better players are at home and why we have the 11 we have a better player is warming the bench.  Such questions if not addressed and answered will invariably result in yet another subpar outing at the U19 2012 WC assuming we get there.  We messed and lost with the senior team -- lets learn from that.  

Without getting into specifics while the tournament is ongoing, this shouldn't be about regions at any level. Unfortunately it seems that for too many people, the way to counter a perceived bias towards region A is to swing the pendulum all the way in the other direction. I hear it all the time - "my league had a successful season, we got 7 players in the regional squad" or "what we need to achieve as a region for next year is to make sure we have at least 3 players in the USA squad". Things may be very wrong right now, but these attitudes will not make it any better. How many people are there out there who are willing to say "I want to have the best USA squad possible and I don't care if that means nobody from my own region makes it" ?

The ironic thing at the U-19 level is that the kids are actually pretty sharp, and they know pretty well who does and doesn't deserve to be there.

In the meantime, from Asia, Afghanistan and Nepal have qualified. Hong Kong got hammered by Afghanistan and won't be going to Ireland or to the U-19 WC in 2012. PNG and Vanuatu are all but confirmed for Ireland too. Scotland and Ireland will be there from Europe, and Kenya and Namibia from Africa. We benefited from playing the qualifier in Canada last time around. It will be much tougher if we make it to Ireland with seaming pitches etc.

@ Coach @Hkrohan

I, along with most others,  want the best team possible to play each and every match.  If the players happen to be from Long Island, NY, or Channel Island, CA,  I am okay with that.  Really.  It is when the best team doesn't play (or widely perceived not to play) that many of us ask questions.  To ask questions should not be equated with (a) regionalism (b) doesnt understand that cricket is a team sport and (c) not supportive of USA.   When questions are asked it will often be about ABC isnt playing but that doesnt mean that it is all about ABC or the region that ABC belongs to.  To assume that is simplistic.  Dont think you two are.

@Anti666:  No offence taken.  Merely asked you to address your 'agenda' concerns directly since you assumed that we had one.

No explanations does not mean nobody asked them the qns.  Some of what you raised here are facts and it is hard to argue with facts.  I can confirm here that we asked some of those qns and (a) when we got a response, we reported on it - satisfactory or not (b) on other topics, we could be waiting on responses.  Yes, with some matters, we could be waiting a long time!  

It is true that, sometimes, the persons we reach out to don't know the answers themselves or only know bits and pieces and these pieces don't always add up.  Sometimes, that is by design (some USACA decisions are devolved to committees by design).  

One might argue that we should publish an article that says "we asked those qns and nothing came of it."  We don't usually do that on a stand-alone basis.  There are better things to fill the space.  If a source wants to be quoted with concerns that echo (y)our concerns, then we might give that some play.  Many times, our sources simply do not like to be quoted.

We do not dispute the process issues highlighted on this blog.  These are mostly valid issues.  If you want to write an op-ed piece on DreamCricket.com raising the issues or asking those qns, please feel free to do so.   We do that under our "Challenges and Opportunities" series.  I think it is safe to assume that several of USACA's board members read our website.

Just don't assume that we have an agenda or depend on someone's 'grace.'  We do things to the best of our ability.  Our editorial stance is public.  We are not like Fox or NBC.  We don't have a partisan agenda (outside of USA's progress).  We certainly don't have all the answers.  We support good decisions and oppose bad ones.  We don't particularly care about who is making those decisions.  Nor do we have unlimited resources to commit to an investigative process.  

Our league reps, regional reps and other elected folks should ask them the same qns.  They can demand answers as elected reps.  Hopefully, they are themselves transparent and honest people committed to rigourous and robust processes.

My own take is that a lot of clubs or leagues just don't seem to care.  I just did a simple poll last week when I found out (to my utter shock) that someone who is important in the cricket scene here did not know about USA's fate in the WCL!  

Most USA based clubs and leagues care more about the goings on outside of USA - most have links to BBC or CricInfo's world feed - but most don't care about USA cricket stories, whether positive or negative, whether those RSS feeds are from DreamCricket or other websites.  

Once again, this is not because they have some mysterious agenda.  They just don't care about the local scene.  

Thirdmaan - i'm with you! Wasnt addressing that to the likes of you, but the quotes I cited are real. If the goal of a region is to have 7 players in the usa probables, and merit is not a part of that, then it is a given that games will be played, and as we can all see, they are. I'm saying thswt the questions need to be asked at many levels of the food chain. I see the same nonsense in the selection of regional teams, and even sometimes league rep teams.