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By Peter Della Penna

In a major blow to USA’s viability as a suitable host for top flight cricket, the ICC confirmed on Thursday that the country is no longer being considered to host this year’s ICC World Cricket League Division Four tournament. The event is scheduled to include Denmark, Nepal, Tanzania, USA and the top two sides from 2012 ICC WCL Division Five, which begins Saturday in Singapore. The sides gunning for promotion from that event are Argentina, Bahrain, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Malaysia and the host nation.

According to an email from an ICC spokesperson, “The United States was one of the venues being evaluated for hosting the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 4 but, as with any ICC event, it was dependent on the potential hosting nations being able to meet a series of ICC criteria. Following discussions with USACA it was decided that the United States currently cannot meet those criteria and therefore will not be considered as a host for the event.”

When asked what criteria USACA failed to meet, the ICC spokesperson responded that a host country “is required to give a number of cricketing, operational and administrative assurances” but the spokesperson would not comment on which aspects USACA could not follow through. It is believed that USACA’s current administrative and governance issues, specifically the failure to hold constitutionally mandated elections in 2011, may have played a role in the ICC looking elsewhere for a host site for Division Four. According to the 2012 USACA calendar of events released on December 9, USA and Nepal were being considered by the ICC to host the event.

During a meeting with ICC President Sharad Pawar in New York last summer, former USACA Secretary John Aaron had campaigned for USA to host 2012 ICC WCL Division Four. This past autumn, USACA General Manager Manaf Mohamed sounded confident that USA would be selected to host the event and he expected the ICC to make a decision by November to confirm USA as the host, but no confirmation was ever made public by either USACA or the ICC.

The fact that USA has been passed over to host the tournament, after seemingly being in the driver’s seat for the opportunity, speaks volumes of how poor USACA’s current relationship is with the ICC. The relationship certainly did not improve this past autumn when USACA failed to meet several administrative deadlines laid out by the ICC in conjunction with the 2011 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh. It resulted in a sternly worded letter from ICC Americas Regional Development Manager Martin Vieira to admonish USACA for failing to properly communicate with the ICC and for its handling of a standoff between the USACA board and women’s players over proposed tour stipends.

One of the major components to hosting a higher level WCL event is having at least three turf facilities within close proximity to each other. There are three turf facilities in the Fort Lauderdale area – Central Broward Regional Park, Brian Piccolo Park and Boca Raton CC – as well as three separate turf pitches at Woodley Park in Los Angeles so the USA would not have failed from that standpoint. There is also adequate infrastructure off the field in order to host teams, such as hotels within close proximity to the grounds, as well as suitable internet network capabilities at the grounds to meet media requirements. As recently as July, USA hosted the ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in Florida while USA also hosted the ICC Americas U-19 Division One tournament last February.

If Nepal now has the inside track to host the event, it will be much more difficult for USA to gain promotion back to Division Three. In the current WCL cycle which began in 2009, eight out of 10 host countries have finished first or second in tournament play. The only two who didn’t were the Netherlands at Division One in 2010, a tournament in which there was no promotion or relegation at stake, and Botswana at Division Seven in 2011.

While USA gained promotion from the Division Five tournament staged in Nepal in 2010, finishing in the top two again in Kathmandu won’t be easy. In addition to a young and energetic Nepal side, USA will also have to contend with a Denmark team that took two out of two matches against USA at Division Three in Hong Kong last year. Depending on the results of Division Five next week, there is a strong chance USA may have to go up against a very solid Singapore team as well. Singapore beat USA convincingly by 99 runs in Nepal two years ago and would have advanced to Division Four in Italy with USA were it not for the unfortunate crowd trouble on the final day of group play in Kathmandu.

Nepal’s crowds, while enthusiastic, have a track record of volatile behavior. Crowd violence marred USA’s win against the hosts in Kathmandu at Division Five in February of 2010 and there was a report of more crowd trouble at the same venue for last December’s ACC Twenty20 Cup match between the UAE and Nepal. Despite this, they may get a chance to host a World Cricket League tournament for the second time in just over two years. Tanzania hosted WCL Division Four in 2008 while other potential participants for the next Division Four – Guernsey, Argentina, Singapore, Malaysia – have also hosted WCL tournaments in the past. Meanwhile, the USA has yet to host one.

Former USACA CEO Don Lockerbie stated during an interview while traveling with the USA team in Nepal in February of 2010 that he hoped USA would get a chance to host a major ICC event in the near future, such as the Champions Trophy in 2013 – which was eventually awarded to England and Wales – in order to build a bigger profile for the USA on the global cricket stage. However, if USA is being passed over to host a World Cricket League tournament, thoughts of hosting a Champions Trophy or World Cup are a pipe dream and it must also cast doubt on plans between New Zealand Cricket and USACA to start up an IPL-style Twenty20 league this summer.