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In 2011, the USA Cricket Association was due to hold regional and
national elections with the coveted position of president the most
sought after. Several people declared their candidacy only for a series
of delays and postponements to occur with the end result that national
elections never took place in the calendar year. Every candidate has
reacted differently to USACA's decisions to postpone elections but they
appear to all be agreed that USACA missed its deadlines.
Atul Ahuja was first to react publicly to the latest postponement
when on December 6, 2011, The Atul Ahuja Team campaign issued a press
release condemning the postponement. In the press release, the Team
noted that it was in favor of leagues being compliant and also in favor
that USACA needs to comply with its own deadlines. The team members, in
a joint statement, noted that the 'league compliance exercise has been
poorly timed and managed, despite popular opinion that this has been
done for the express purpose of delaying the election.' The Ahuja Team
unanimously called for an early election 'to ensure that the 2012
cricket season can be properly planned and be run with legitimate
office-bearers at USACA.'
In
a letter to the league presidents on January 3, 2012, Presidential
candidate Ram Varadarajan noted that he had filed a formal complaint
along with Eastern American Cricket Association (NY) to the
USACA board. The complaint is the latest in a series of events that
was triggered by the notification by the board that it had decided to
postpone the constitutionally required elections. On December 8, 2011,
Mr. Varadarajan had written to the board to reconsider
its decision. On December 16, the board notified Mr. Varadarajan that
it would respond to the letter "shortly" in a communique to league
members.
On December 20, 2011, the board sent a letter to league members
agreeing to hold an election on March 17, 2012 but refusing to recognize
votes of all members that were in good standing as of November 30,
2011. As required by USACA constitution, the complaint was filed within
14 days of the Board's December 20 letter. The complaint, dated
December 27, states that the compliance audit is not a prerequsite to
vote in regional or national elections, and to this day, the board has
not identified any provision of the constitution that authorized it to
condition voting rights on full, complete, and satisfactory compliance
with the audit.
The complaint calls for USACA to recognize the results of all
regional elections held in 2011, including but not limited to the
Central East and Atlantic Region elections; for any region whose
election hasn’t yet taken place, to hold their election by February 14;
to force USACA to not engage in any more delays and hold the national
elections no later than March 17; permit all leagues in good standing
according to the USACA Constitution to vote in the national elections
and allow the leagues until September 30, 2012 to collect, prepare and
submit documents in response to the administrative compliance
audit. Varadarajan and the EACA have requested that the USACA board
notify them by January 9 whether they will agree to the appointment of a
mutually agreed arbitrator with the goal of having a hearing no later
than January 23. The complaint states that if USACA does not agree to an
arbitration hearing, the complainants “will be forced to seek Court
relief, including seeking an injunction prohibiting the Board from
continuing to disenfranchise its leagues.”
Separately, the New Inning Foundation, the non-profit entity of which
Varadarajan is the president, will be funding a program called “Embrace
Good Governance” which is designed to assist any USACA league to “shore
up its governance issues.” The New Inning Foundation has retained the
services of accounting firm ASF Financial Solutions to aid leagues in
this endeavor.
Meanwhile, fellow USACA presidential candidate Nabeel Ahmed has
issued a statement saying he is against “any action which can ultimately
hurt the USACA brand.”
“Writing to ICC and threatening to file a law suit against USACA will
not resolve the issues,” Ahmed said in a press release issued on or
about January 3, 2012. “If anything, writing to ICC or filing a law
suit against USACA, especially by a member who is sitting on LLC
appointed by USACA or sitting on USACA board, will hurt USACA, and
subsequently hurt LLC as well. This could create a panic situation among
the LLC investors, and in the process USA cricket will be the loser,
and the LLC might lose its investors. This kind of action by a board
member can put LLC in serious jeopardy.”
In an earlier release, dated September 15, 2011, Ahmed voiced
concerns about USACA's delaying tactics. "It matters holding the
elections on time and and leave the rest to the incoming board with
lots of capable people out there who will be elected democratically to
run this esteemed organization USACA. I strongly recommend that all the
efforts should be made to ensure the elections should take place as
announced on schedule and be monitored by the independent auditors as
the constitution dictates," Ahmed wrote.