Image courtesy of: Newyorkcricket.com
The money was intended for the USACA
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had to make an embarrassing apology to the United States Youth Cricket Association (USYCA) after sending them just over $8,100, which they then asked to be returned to the ICC Americas headquarters in Toronto.
According to the ICC, the money had actually been intended for the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA).
“An administrative error resulted in funds from the ICC Americas regional office, meant for the USA Cricket Association (USACA), being sent to the USYCA,” an ICC spokesman said. “USACA is the governing body for cricket, and the ICC’s Member, in the United States. ICC Americas has apologised to both the USYCA and USACA for this confusion, which is now being rectified.”
USYCA’s president Jamie Harrison had got his hopes high for a brief period of time after seeing the money the ICC had sent.
Harrison was hoping to use the funds to strengthen ties between USYCA and the ICC, but was shocked and surprised when ICC Americas Regional Development Manager, Ben Kavenagh, asked for the money to be returned.
“I was excited that the ICC had sent us $8100,” Harrison told ESPNcricinfo. “But the money itself isn’t a big deal – they shovel $300,000 a year into USACA, and $8000 even in our budget isn’t a make-or-break kind of thing. To me what was more exciting was the thought that the ICC wanted to get involved in cricket development in the United States.
“Now I’ve got notification from the ICC that that money was destined for USACA and they wanted their money back. That was disturbing not from the money perspective, it was disturbing as I thought there was going to be a partner to work with us to develop cricket in the United States.”
The USYCA was created by Harrison in 2010 in an attempt to make the sport popular amongst the sports-loving Americans.
As of today, cricket has been played by about 250,000 school students.
The USYCA has also taken the liberty of distributing 1,500 cricket sets across the United States.
Harrison is also frustrated at the lack of support his organisation is getting from the ICC as its aim is to increase the popularity of the sport at the grassroots level.
“USYCA on the other hand, our purpose in life is to turn the United States into a cricket playing nation, to raise up a generation of cricketers who will one day play on the international stage,” Harrison added.
Meanwhile, the ICC and USACA have both spoken of their interests to take the game to the next level in the United States.
“As part of its global development strategy, the sustainable growth and improvement of domestic participation programmes in emerging cricket nations is a key priority of the ICC,” the ICC spokesman said. “This focus has resulted in participation numbers in ICC’s Associate and Affiliate Members increasing from 500,000 to over 900,000 since 2010.
“This strategic objective is shared by USACA, who together with ICC, has recently committed resources to the implementation of a joint participation programme pilot in the US. This pilot project will commence in the coming months, with further information about it to be released in due course.”