The United States of America Cricket Association’s Annual General Meeting and election of officers took place on Saturday, April 14 at the Westin Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, and when it was all over, incumbent president, Gladstone Dainty was reelected by a margin of 10 votes, as he defeated Ram Varadarajan by 12 votes to 2. The other two candidates who contested the presidency did not receive any votes.
Gladstone Dainty retained USACA presidency for another three years. Photo by Shiek Mohamed
Election day appeared to be a day for the incumbents, since all the officers, with the exception of former secretary, John Aaron, were reelected to their respective positions. First VP, Michael Gale won his contest handily by 9 votes, with Shadid Ahmed getting 2 votes, Krish Prasad 2 votes and Mohammed Qureshi 1 vote. The race for second VP was the only contest that presented any real challenges to the incumbency, when Rafey Syed narrowly squeaking pass Ahmed Jeddy by a score of 6 votes to 5. The other contestants were Hermant Bush and Mohammed Qureshi who got 2 votes each. Treasurer John Thickett was easily reelected, beating challenger Gangaram Singh by 12 votes to 3. The only new addition to the executive is the effervescent Kenwyn Williams, who handily defeated former secretary, John Aaron by 10 votes to 5.
Prior to the elections, Treasurer John Thickett gave a visual presentation of the financial position of USACA, while First VP Michael Gale’s presentation was centered on a series of start-up youth programs. He told the group to expect greater emphasis to be placed on our youth going forward. Immediately after the elections, President Dainty announced the appointment of Nabeel Ahmed as acting CEO for USACA. The president said the board will move swiftly to make this a permanent appointment.
In the weeks leading up to the general elections, four board representatives were appointed by their respective regions, and are ready to sit on the board. They are: Keith Gill from the Atlantic Region, Krish Prasad from the New York Region, Brian Walters from the Central West Region, and Owen Grey for the South East region. The other four regions: North East, Central East, North West and South West are currently dealing with some league compliant-related issues, and, as such, are not allowed to have a representative seated on the board until those issues are resolved.
President Dainty has indicated a willingness to continue his outreach to the affected regions in an attempt to assist them with their compliance issues, so that a full complement of 13 board members can be seated as soon as possible. These sentiments were widely expressed by several of those in attendance at the AGM. All in all, it was a civil meeting, and even though members did not hesitate to voice their concerns, there was a level of respect that endured throughout the meeting.
