The ICC Cuts Out The Middle Man

Of all the things I never expected to find value in, a PACER account is the last one I ever considered a possibility. Until about a month ago, I didn’t even know what PACER is. It’s essential for court reporters who need access to public court records to do their job with meaningful detail. In writing about cricket, I unfortunately found it to be necessary - doing any kind of meaningful reporting on USA Cricket’s ongoing legal troubles requires the ability to research court records and parse through filings upon filings upon filings... and boy are there a lot of filings in this bankruptcy case. But more on that in a minute.

Earlier this week, the ICC issued a press release regarding the concrete steps it plans to take over the next few weeks and months with regards to cricket in the United States. In short: it has exhausted its patience waiting for USA Cricket to undertake meaningful reform to get out of its suspension and is taking over more core governance functions in the wake of USAC’s suspension, including bankrolling the national teams and sanctioning domestic competitions.

If the timing of this release strikes you as a bit odd, context may be important here: 15 men’s national team players have contracts with USAC expiring on December 31st, leaving nearly the entire World Cup squad out of contract. Given USAC’s ongoing suspension and bankruptcy, there are likely a lot of people apprehensive about where that money is coming from, and these men want to make sure they’re getting paid when they take on India at the Wankhede on February 7, just as the women do in Nepal (January 18 at Upper Mulpani) and the U19 men do in Zimbabwe (January 15 in Bulawayo). These players are already owed money by USAC ranging from $700 to in excess of $10,000, money which is up in the air while USAC rolls through bankruptcy. It’s critically important to the ICC that the United States be at international tournaments it has qualified for, so it’s stepping in to ensure everyone competes with peace of mind and the best players available won’t be stopped by financial concerns. That’s an extreme intervention for a global governing body, but it’s sadly not unprecedented in American cricket.

There’s also some politics involved. The ICC statement notes that USA Cricket was offered a loan by the ICC to help get it out of bankruptcy, but that loan was refused, because of course it was: the ICC could attach any number of conditions to that financing up to and including the resignation of board members that it has been asking for over the last several months, which the Board would naturally reject. The ICC could then use that rejection as a justification to say “we tried and they won’t work with us” and not only fund, but potentially directly operate the US national teams. The ICC’s statement is very direct about this:

That last bit about the Olympics is not just boilerplate hype for 2028, either. The ICC says it is working directly with the USOPC on assembling a development pathway for the 2028 Summer Games, which could include Duleep Trophy-style national championships like what USA Cricket has offered in the past. While USA Green vs. USA Blue is not the most riveting matchup from a marketing standpoint, it’s important to make sure the players who are currently in the squad are consistently under pressure to earn their places there and new talent is identified. Iron sharpens iron, as the saying goes, and USA Cricket is not in a position financially or politically to build a sustainable structure at this point, so the ICC is getting that process started with no meaningful resistance.

The ICC is also formally stepping in to sign off on domestic cricket competitions. USA Cricket lost that right under ICC rules in the wake of its suspension, and William Glenwright, the Director of Global Development for the ICC, is overseeing the process personally. His ICC email address is in the press release, so there’s no ambiguity about who to contact for sanctioning matters or how. Major League Cricket and Minor League Cricket are likely to continue with little issue, but other tournaments such as the T10 National Cricket League or the various wildcat T20 leagues that have come and gone over the last couple of years will likely face greater scrutiny. Annual regional tournaments like the Houston Premier League and the Atlanta Open also face an uncertain future.

What all of this adds up to is the ICC excising USA Cricket’s board and its baggage from any meaningful function within the American cricket ecosystem to a breadth and depth only seen once before - when the ICC suspended and later expelled the USACA a decade ago. The things the ICC is doing are core functions of what a national board would do. This puts them in a position to operate American cricket for anywhere from 6-36 months before making the handoff to new local governance, ideally (in their minds) circling back to reclaim the IP assets of USA Cricket once the court drama is resolved and slapping that brand on whatever comes next, or, if it’s taking too long, expel USA Cricket and start over again. While cricket is unlikely to grow meaningfully under direct ICC control, it also won’t collapse and send the game into yet another dark age. (Its third dark age? Its fourth? Who’s to say?)

As for the bankruptcy proceedings themselves, they have rather predictably been bogged down early on. USA Cricket filed for a Subchapter V bankruptcy, a newer addition to Chapter 11 that allows for a more streamlined reorganization for concerns with smaller sums of debt, getting them back on their feet faster and with less bureaucracy. More importantly, the trustee that comes with this process has less oversight authority and is more of a mediator and consensus-builder compared to a traditional Chapter 11. This designation is elected by the filing party and, like anything else in this goddamn sport, has been contentious. The case is in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado, presided over by Judge Michael E. Romero.

ACE objected almost immediately to Subchapter V with support from the ICC and the familiar cohort of dissenting board members in Atul Rai, Arjun Gona, and Kuljit-Singh Nijjar, as well as still-ousted board member Patricia Whittaker. Questions were raised about the board’s ability to submit a satisfactory reorganization plan - something that, as I write this on Christmas Eve, USA Cricket has not done. ACE filed a motion to have that status revoked from USA Cricket in November, which the Subchapter V trustee objected to. There is little precedent surrounding Subchapter V because it is so new, so Romero is inclined to give USA Cricket all the time it is allowed to submit a reorganization plan before potentially doing something with potentially far-reaching implications for future bankruptcy proceedings. The 90-day window afforded under US bankruptcy law to submit their plan expires on December 30, so the court denied ACE’s motion on December 15 and gave them until 12/30 to get their stuff in a pile before even entertaining the idea of revoking Subchapter V. The court is closed on December 24-28, meaning USA Cricket will have a 48 hour window to submit a finished reorganization plan, something they have presumably (hopefully, for their sake) been working on all week.

While relevant stakeholders file motions and responses questioning USA Cricket’s ability to reorganize to the satisfaction of its creditors or the court without outside intervention, Pisike and his faction of the Board are attempting via court submissions to reframe their governing dysfunction as a byproduct of a potentially yearslong conspiracy by ACE and the ICC to destabilize USA Cricket to their benefit. The submissions aren’t very useful for the case and may end up being deeply unhelpful for USAC in displaying its governing competence, but they do make for entertaining reading. Anj Balusu makes multiple references to “information shared with me by multiple individuals,” which is the definition of hearsay. David Haubert tries to gin up antitrust concerns that are at best quasi-relevant to the bankruptcy. Pisike’s gargantuan 106 page submission puts previously private and/or confidential information into public record, including the suspension letter the ICC sent to USA Cricket earlier this year. Oops.

All of that being said, Srini Salver’s November 18 submission offers two useful pieces of information. First, the ACE and/or ICC offer to finance USAC as Debtor-In-Possession during the proceedings came with conditions that would require members of the current board to resign before sweeping governance changes are made - basically what the ICC has wanted for months, which, as mentioned above, the current Board would naturally reject. Second, any inaccuracies in the bankruptcy filings are Johnathan Atkeison’s fault:

Catch that? The CEO furloughed himself. While I don’t have a specific date on when Atkeison’s self-imposed furlough began, scattered court filings suggest it was sometime in early November, no later than November 10. Given that this furlough has been mentioned as recently as December 15, I suspect it is still ongoing, so it’s not clear if anyone is minding the store for USA Cricket right now. Totally normal stuff.

I have said before and will say again that Pisike and his Coalition of the Willing lose this fight 100% of the time, and now the scale of that loss is beginning to take shape - it’s catastrophic. He is outnumbered and outgunned, and the ICC has turned the bankruptcy against him and used it to pile onto the public image of the Board majority as uncredible administrators for American cricket. Everyone he could go to for meaningful political support is aligned against him. Now he is cornered; USAC only stays relevant in the structure of American cricket if Pisike steps aside, which he will not do willingly and might not even do unwillingly. The ICC is sick of waiting and has decided to use the political and economic leverage it has to bypass USAC all together while the organization is suspended and bankrupt.

Jake Paul had a better chance against Anthony Joshua than Pisike does against the ICC, but like Paul, Pisike chose this fight when he absolutely did not have to. He chose it repeatedly and set markers for this path at every turn. The ICC is now on the record with its intent to do the actual legwork of organizing cricket nationally while USAC cannot; the moment the ICC organizes its first domestic non-MLC championship, Pisike ceases to be relevant to American cricket. His career as an administrator, at least at the national level, is over. His allies will meet similar fates. The ICC is turning him and the USAC Board into a sideshow while cricket marches on. Venu would be better off teaming up with Mahammad Ahamad Qureshi at this point.

Cricket - sweet, honest-to-God cricket - comes with the new year, and the Men’s U19 World Cup is up first, less than three weeks away. If the ICC wants to make a real impression that things are changing, a squad on, say, January 2 instead of January 14 would be a great way to get that started. Behind the scenes, however, the process is closer to its end than it is to its beginning.

Thanks for reading Stumps & Stripes! While the topic of this particular story was a bit heavy, it was a lot of fun to write. If you haven’t already, it would mean a great deal to me if you subscribed to Stumps & Stripes. You can do so for free by clicking here:

If you have subscribed, I humbly ask that you share a story that you liked with someone and encourage them to subscribe. I have no referral program as of now because this is a hobby, not a business, but word of mouth is going to be a huge help for me in growing this thing to where I can reconsider that. We’re approaching an exciting burst of activity in American cricket with three of the four major national teams in action in January, February, and March. I hope you’ll choose now to join me on this journey!