USACA cuts a sorry figure in Florida

Nineteen Twenty20 matches were scheduled. Six were chopped in half to 10-over contests, four ended with no result, four more were washed out entirely due to rain and another two never got started after players decided it was not worth their time. Overall, only three matches played out to a natural start and conclusion.

This was the sum total of the USA Cricket Association T20 National Championship. There was more sponsorship support than in years past. There was also better organizational standards executed by tournament director Owen Grey and USACA project manager Sunil Kumar, who made sure basics like proper team kit orders and scorekeeping were taken care of correctly.

Yet no matter how hard USACA tried to get things right in Florida, most people will remember this event for the amount of cricket that was not played.

Summer time in Florida is rainy season, and mid-afternoon thunderstorms rolled through the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill like clockwork from Thursday to Saturday. Mother Nature did her best to needle USACA by making sure there was bright sunshine in Lauderhill all day Wednesday and Sunday, the days before and after the tournament ended.

In a press release on June 2, USACA tried to spin the positives out of having their three-year hosting agreement torn up by the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, which caused them to take the National Championship caravan to Florida.

One boast centered around the Central Broward Regional Park's stadium floodlights, an amenity not contained at the World Sports Park in Indianapolis, which allowed USACA to schedule more tournament games in Florida because they could play at night.

Despite having seven games scheduled to be played at night under the lights, none actually took place. The Central Broward Regional Park's historically poor drainage system was not capable of soaking up afternoon rain well enough for play to be resumed in calmer evening conditions, so the floodlights were never actually switched on at any point for cricket-playing purposes.

Another claim made by USACA was that the stadium in Florida was built for broadcasters, with the hint that the broadcast rights deal that had been announced in January to showcase the National Championship on TV would be logistically easier to do in Lauderhill than in Indianapolis.

A reference was made to previous T20 showcases in 2010 and 2012 featuring Full Members Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies which were televised from the stadium. Unfortunately, none of the USACA tournament games made the airwaves because cash-strapped USACA did not scrape together the money to cover production costs.

USACA also denounced Indianapolis over a perceived increase in the cost of doing business to stage a tournament there. "The costs for teams, families and fans to travel and stay in Indianapolis were just exceptionally high," Sunil said in the June 2 USACA release.

"There are rarely if ever enough direct flights available and that was causing teams to have to take more personal time off. Added to this we were not able to get a large enough sponsor to subsidize these costs for all regions and the forty plus leagues involved in the national championship if the tournament was to be held in a non-traditional cricket market."

Contrary to past tournaments where USACA has covered costs for all the players and teams involved, this year almost everyone paid their own way to travel to Florida for the event. For the majority of players, especially those from the west coast, costs were actually much higher to travel to Florida than to Indianapolis.

Many players who were originally selected for their regional teams had to withdraw from the competition beforehand due to the higher costs, particularly to travel on short notice. With hindsight, those who withdrew may have made the right move considering how little cricket was actually played.

Taking into consideration the fact that players were footing the bill themselves for this event and that they were often forced off the field due to the poor weather, one might assume that the players would have been desperate to get in as much cricket as possible when conditions allowed.

Yet, on the final day, the players voluntarily passed up an opportunity to play consolation matches after being told that the semi-finals were being scrapped to make way for an earlier start to the final.

One of the four teams who chose not to play was the South West Region. Heading into the event, they were a near lock to make the semi-finals, which would have resulted in five T20 matches. In other words, they would have been looking at 200 overs of cricket at bat and in the field.

This tournament was supposed to find players suitable for USA's next 50-over tournament, the ICC WCL Division Three in Uganda this October. However, South West only completed a combined 56.1 overs of play over the weekend due to rain and restructuring of schedules.

Despite having nearly three quarters of their expected allotment of cricket chopped off after traveling to Florida at their own expense, the South West players no longer had interest in seizing an opportunity to play more cricket with potential selection in the USA national team at stake.

The fact that rain arrived just an hour later which would have cut short their desired semi-final is beside the point. They sought more value for their hard-earned dollars spent to participate in this event and did not appreciate being shortchanged on principle from a semi-final spot after finishing second in Group A.

American Cricket Federation chief executive Jamie Harrison was quick to pounce on USACA's handling of the event, blasting them over the decision to schedule the event in Florida in August. Harrison wrote that August is "a time of year when that region is historically subject to drenching rains and occasional hurricanes".

Harrison's argument is somewhat undercut though by the fact that ACF has scheduled their national championship for October in Orlando. Although not as consistently wet as the month of August, hurricane season in Florida extends through the end of November.

Since 2000, there have been eight tropical storms or hurricanes that have made landfall in Florida in the month of October, so there is every chance the same fate could befall the ACF championship. Had the USACA event taken place at the originally scheduled dates this week in Indianapolis from August 21-24, the situation might not have been any better. Conditions from Thursday through Saturday in Indianapolis call for a 50% chance of rain each day with weather not clearing until Sunday.

Going to Lauderhill after Indianapolis shredded its hosting agreement is not the error USACA needs to take responsibility for. USACA's issue is that Lauderhill became their main fallback option by default after they disenfranchised the Southern California Cricket Association in 2012 ahead of that year's USACA general election.

The SCCA holds the permits for the best multi-field complex in America, Woodley Park. Los Angeles is dry and sunny in August. Woodley has four turf wicket grounds and the SCCA has a track record of shifting its league schedule if the opportunity to host a national event arises. However, that door is shut on USACA for the time being because the SCCA is now aligned with the ACF.

At the post-tournament presentation, USACA president Gladstone Dainty made a few noteworthy statements to liven up proceedings. First, he proclaimed to the small crowd that USACA had not been able to hold a tournament in three years because the organization was "busy participating in ICC events" and that the National Championship could not be played in Indianapolis because "a lot of things conspired against us." He was just getting started.

Trying to bring a moment of levity to the gloomy weekend, Dainty said he "wouldn't mind if we went another two or three years without another national tournament because I see so many new faces here."

He then postulated that some senior players were not a part of the teams because they must have gotten old and tired waiting for the next tournament to happen. So a three-year gap between domestic championships worked out well since "we've got younger talent coming through now." No one laughed.

The old guys leaving could not be further from the truth. It's the young ones, players who should be in the prime of their careers, who have grown weary with the state of affairs that they've begun to set aside their free time and money for other activities.

There are 25 players aged 35 and under who have played for the USA national team since 2011, the year USACA last held a men's national championship, who were not picked or did not make themselves available to be a part of their regional teams at this year's event.

Of the eligible player pool for regional squads at this event, 22% of the best players in America were absent. This included 12 players who played for USA in 2013. Without a proper structure and development plan in place, USACA has made a habit of cycling through players and discarding them. The result is that a significant chunk of USA's best young talent no longer cares if they get invited to play for the national team or not. They've got better things to do with their time.

Forget weather issues, venue selection or time of year for staging a tournament. The inability to have all of the nation's best players eager to be involved in a national championship in a bid to make the national team should be the biggest concern for anyone involved with USACA.

In spite of the obstacles presented by administrators in the past, players could always be counted upon to deliver unwavering passion and commitment on the field. If that begins to erode, USA will have a hard time putting forth a successful unit at ICC WCL Division Three or any other international tournaments down the road.