I swear, every time I want to write about governance drama, it feels like nothing has changed since the last time I wrote about it, but the moment I try to write about anything else, some big development goes down. Watched pot never boils, I guess. Move over Sanjay Krishnamurthi, and grab a seat next to the Auty Cup and Brazil.
I’m just going to let that sentence stand on its own, because it deserves to. There is a silence that follows it, like the silence born out of awe and fear after witnessing the Trinity test. The decision was arrived at comparatively swiftly, before the end of the three-month probationary period that began in July, and is the first suspension of the second cricket board to oversee the sport in the United States and the fourth total. It is a significant moment, because it is the first tangible crack in the existing board’s ability to remain in power. This era of USA Cricket is now beginning to unravel.
For people who have sought concrete steps toward the removal of Venu Pisike and his bloc from positions of power over the sport in the US, the suspension is a validation of everything they have seen and heard as the drama has accelerated over the last 18 months. From those who simply view the chairman as a petty tyrant impeding the sport’s growth to those who have taken things a little more personally, there is a deep sigh of relief that comes with this news. The ICC is stepping in to operate the national teams, ensuring that the players (and hopefully coaches) have a smooth(ish) transition into whatever the future holds. Major League Cricket has T20 status from the ICC, which should ensure its sanctioning - and thus its international talent pool - for its recently announced 2026 season. What all of that means is, cricket as mainstream observers (like me!) know it will continue to function with minimal disruption, and that this was about punishing the board specifically. It shuts them out of authority and puts a potentially lethal strain on USAC’s financial resources. Bankruptcy of some kind appears likely if not imminent. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy - outright liquidation - is not out of the question.
Whatever organization comes out of this suspension, whether USA Cricket by name or a different governing body (again), it will look very different from what we have seen the last two years and what we are likely to see over the next few weeks as USAC limps and stumbles off the cliff Pisike has led it to. Hopefully it will have actual staff, like a volunteer coordinator and media relations and at least one revenue person to work under the CEO, who may or may not be a different person at the end of it all. The constitution is loaded with unclear or excessively technical language to make enforcing bylaws deliberately difficult and isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on at this point (assuming it is printed on paper somewhere). It needs a drastic overhaul. It may need to be thrown out entirely in favor of a new one with zero ambiguity, robust checks and balances, and actual teeth to hold violators accountable. This will likely be a significant part of the ICC’s Normalization Committee efforts.
Part of this, though, is up to us. We now have to answer the question that Pisike was never able to: what happens when we get what we want?
For me, there is catharsis, but also concern that we are simply restarting the cycle. This needed to happen, and there wasn’t really a way around it given the disposition of everyone involved. While not ideal, it is a good thing USAC was suspended for the conduct of the current board. Without some drastic changes, though, it feels like we’re counting the days until the next cabal of middle-aged men decide it’s their turn to drive the sport into the ground for ego and profit. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, same as the even older boss, who will use the same bag of tricks to land us back in this spot again before the end of the decade. The ICC is not an institution in which I invest much hope for meaningful change unless it is prodded into doing it.
Stakeholders in American cricket need to be loud. Players, leagues, investors, and even potential sponsors all need to step forward and be heard and ensure that the next board is also heard frequently instead of operating under cloak and dagger of opaque meeting minutes posted infrequently on the organization’s website, that financial transparency doesn’t sag, that these people don’t just exist on paper or in some niche ivory tower but in real spaces where we can see them in broad daylight. Go on the record about it. If an outlet sticks a microphone in your face, give them a quote; if a governing body wants to do a listening tour, show up and give them something to listen to!
For me, there’s a lot. Maybe enough for its own piece. The next board must be proactive in building the sport’s reach and in strengthening our neighborhood internationally with the West Indies and Canada and even countries like Bermuda, Brazil, and Argentina, all of whom need to play the extra cricket even if it’s against a USA A side. We need people who look at the Karima Gore getting called up by the West Indies as an embarrassment for us and vow to never let it happen again because our domestic structure is too strong to consider leaving. We need people serious about national club championships and youth development and not leaning on third parties to build one high-performance center in one city of the third most populous nation on Earth and think that’s enough to build a Full Member-caliber national talent pool. We need people who are serious about getting cricket into schools ranging from kindergartens to universities and are able to connect with willing volunteers and support them with resources, even if it’s just a few plastic bats and some tennis balls to donate to a gym class. We need serious people who are serious about cricket in the United States.
If you love this sport, and everyone reading this does, now is not the time to celebrate or back away: now is the time to push as hard as you can. This is the moment where WE take control of our cricket and don’t let one man’s desire for power hold us back. Cricket in America deserves better than what it has gotten on a national governance front under Pisike and his allies, but we won’t get what we deserve unless we show up and demand it.
Their time? It’s over. It’s done. This is OUR time. Let’s go out there and take it.