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With roughly one month remaining before the controversial and much-postponed USACA election, a lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. federal court by Ram Varadarajan, candidate for President of USACA, with California Cricket Academy as co-litigant. 

In a letter to the league presidents, Varadarajan wrote: "The lawsuit details the Board’s misconduct and seeks a Court Order halting the sham elections and substituting free and fair elections.  Specifically, we ask the Court to order that  the national election occur promptly with all leagues who were in good standing as of November 30, 2011 be deemed eligible to vote and all regional elections that took place in 2011 per the Constitution be recognized."

Varadarajan has retained the services of the nationally renowned O'Melveny and Myers.  CCA has engaged Ron Katz of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, who is also a professor of sports law at Santa Clara University.

As readers will remember, Ram Varadarajan had previously filed a complaint  in accordance with USACA constitution stating that the compliance audit was not a prerequsite to vote in regional or national elections, and that 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.  USACA dismissed the complaint and continued with its compliance audit before ultimately disenfranchising 32 leagues.

In his letter addressed to the league presidents and cricket enthusiasts explaining the reasons for seeking legal recourse, Varadarajan wrote:  "We share a passion for cricket and the desire to see our sport grow in the United States.  Others do not.  They crave power.  The actions of the Board of Directors of USACA this past year have been unthinkable.
 
"The USACA Board has postponed the Constitutionally-required national elections five times and well beyond the last legally allowed date.   Then, after supposed “final” election dates had been announced, the USACA Board set out on a course to rig the election.  It succeeded.  Under the guise of a “compliance audit,” the Board disenfranchised more than 2/3 of all USACA leagues, forbidding those leagues from voting in the Association’s elections.  32 of 47 leagues have no voice whatsoever in the direction of our Association for the next three years -- if ever.  The board is desperately trying to make the result of the farce election a fait accompli.
 
"This is exactly the sort of arbitrary, self-interested misconduct that occurred in 2007, threatened the existence of USACA, and forced the drafting of our Constitution.  Unfortunately, the USACA Board thinks it is above the law.  It boldly, openly, and defiantly violated the Constitution and law, believing that nobody would stand up and do anything about it.
 
"The Board was wrong."

"I have been humbled and encouraged by the support that I have received from across the country in this fight for justice and fair play," Varadarajan wrote in his letter adding that he was honored to lead this fight on behalf of all true cricket lovers in the US.