By Orin Davidson
More than three years since a new constitution was written and a year since a paid Chief Executive Officer was appointed, all designed to fast forward the development of United States cricket, with serious intent, recent developments suggest some stakeholders are bent on sabotaging the quest for change.
If you would think New York would’ve been the trailblazers for modernization.
Think again.
Eastern American Cricket Association president Rudy Persaud.
Actually New York cricket management is still as backward as ever and it has little to do with the continued exclusive use of archaic matting pitches for all competitions.
Just this last week, one of the few straight thinking officials attempted to enforce competition rules in the Eastern American Cricket League but was threatened and abused as a result.
He has to endure such barbaric behavior because he chose to do the right thing in upholding a protest against Enmore club which clearly flouted the rules by fielding an ineligible player in the League’s playoff series.
Rudy Persaud did not mirror the actions of most New York officials who indulge in curry-favor and graft but is being deemed a villain as a result.
The fact he did what any cricket official would do in any serious cricket country, tells you all about the uncivil thinking prevalent in the fraternity.
And to add insult to injury the disgruntled dug up the Baisley Park pitch where many of the EACA games are played.
If the rules state players have to play at least two games to be eligible for a competition, you have to comply. Don’t expect an official to condone flouting the rules as if we are still living in the Wild West.
It is comparable to having the United States select West Indian star Shivnarine Chanderpaul to represent the U.S. and getting upset when that team is kicked out of the competition.
Such thinking explains the stagnation the game has endured here over the years although organized cricket has been in existence in America since Noah built his arch.
And if you think such actions are abominable, some officials are acting just as worse.
New York Region chairman Selwyn Caesar.
Current New York chairman Selwyn Caesar tops the list.
This individual has been around the game here since those Noah days but his thinking has remained stone age despite all the real and prospective changes going on around him at the national level.
He continues to act as though cricket is still staged for the benefit of middle age men with nothing else to do with their time. Presently, when serious efforts are being made to take America’s cricket closer to Test and ODI levels of acceptance, it seems everything enters one ear of Caesar’s and exits the other.
Merit and accountability apparently means nothing to this individual.
Case in point.
Caesar recently presided over the continued debarring of America’s most accomplished coach Linden Fraser from handling regional teams.
When asked to explain the latest decision to remove Fraser from this year’s New York Under-19 team, to the fans and supporters, through the media, the highest ranking official in New York Region bluntly refused.
His response was, “you write whatever you want to write, I have nothing to say”.
Caesar’s action was the same when Fraser was cut from the senior New York team immediately after winning the Eastern Conference title last year.
Incredible but true.
In the year 2010, the person in charge of New York cricket, thinks nothing of blatantly flouting his most important responsibility, which is to make the game accountable to fans and supporters without which, cricket would cease to exist around the world.
You get the impression every important function the New York Region performs is of no business to the fans and players, according to Caesar’s thinking.
And this is an individual who was appointed to replace the last New York chairman, supposedly removed for incompetence.
What is even more frightening is that the people who made Caesar’s appointment possible are the ones currently charged with making decisions at the various leagues around the Region.
With such liabilities around, New York’s cricket has no place to go except backwards.
