September 3, 2015
USACA 'unprofessional and not trustworthy' – ICC report
Faizan Janjua said he cannot continue to work with the current USACA board members, including president Gladstone Dainty (above) © Peter Della Penna
September 3, 2015
USACA 'unprofessional and not trustworthy' – ICC report
Faizan Janjua said he cannot continue to work with the current USACA board members, including president Gladstone Dainty (above) © Peter Della Penna
Faizan Janjua, who was elected to his first term on the USA Cricket Association board of directors in March, has resigned from his post as vice-president after just over five months in the position. Janjua's resignation was announced via Facebook on Wednesday night, and comes just five days after the USACA board was absent from the ICC's town hall meeting for USA stakeholders in Chicago.
"I knew from the get-go that it would be hard to work with the current regime of USACA," Janjua wrote. "But I wanted to give it a shot. Now it is very evident that I can't proceed with a very ill-managed organization. Therefore, I'm resigning as 2nd VP of USACA."
When contacted by phone on Wednesday night, Janjua told ESPNcricinfo: "There was no real effort to steer the organization in the right direction. If you want to correct something, you have to recognize where you are doing wrong or where the problem is and they are not even willing to do that.
"They think the whole ICC thing is being malicious toward USACA, which is wrong. Their responses to some of the questions raised by the ICC, they are not willing to answer them. They hide behind the USACA constitution and their answer to everything is, 'We are governed by the USACA constitution.' I think it's very unlikely that they will be reinstated." The ICC had suspended the membership of the USACA in June.
According to Janjua, the USACA board's absence from the Chicago town hall meeting run by the ICC on August 29 was an organized effort. Janjua says that during a USACA board meeting on August 25, the board decided not to attend the meeting because they claimed they were "informed of the town hall but not formally invited". However, an ICC spokesperson denied the USACA claim that they were not invited to the town hall.
"It is incorrect to suggest that the USACA was not invited to attend the Town Hall meeting," an ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo on Thursday. "The ICC wrote to the USACA president, inviting him and representatives of his board. This invitation was reiterated during ICC's meetings with USACA in New York some weeks ago, and in correspondence following this meeting."
Separate from his USACA post, Janjua serves as president of the Northwest Cricket League and ran on the same ticket as Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference president Suren Gandavaram in the 2015 USACA election and won a vice-president post that had been vacated by Michael Gale who chose not to seek re-election. However, Gandavaram's bid against Dainty failed, leaving Janjua without a major ally on the board and as a result he says he ran into steady opposition during meetings.
"In one of the meetings, all of them jumped on me because I was asked by the ICC about the ghost leagues," Janjua said. "I told them what was true, what was happening in my area because I am familiar with it. One of the leagues called Seattle Cricket League is not an active league and they did not like it."
Janjua, 45, first came to attention on the US cricket scene in 2012 when he was part of a five-man league presidents committee appointed by the USACA to oversee the appeals process filed by the 32 USACA member leagues who were barred from voting in that year's election after the completion of a member leagues compliance audit. After all appeals were rejected, Janjua blasted the process, calling it a sham in an email to all USACA members.
Janjua also was part of the six-man league presidents committee formed after the 2014 USACA AGM to come up with revisions to a proposed new USACA constitution after a vote to ratify the document was deferred at the AGM. The group's proposals were put forward to the USACA board in January and were rejected outright. As a result, the 2015 USACA elections went ahead under the USACA constitution that has been in place since 2008. When asked why he pursued a spot on the USACA board after these experiences, Janjua said he was hoping to be an agent of change from the inside.
"I gave it a shot but it didn't work," Janjua said. "The current board, they do not have the vision or the capacity to change anything. It has to be a different group. If people are hoping that these people will change, it's not going to happen. They've been around for long enough and they know how to control the organisation. The ICC or someone else will have to come up with a different group of people, those who have the right idea and the vision to change cricket."
ESPNcricinfo attempted to contact USACA president Gladstone Dainty for a response to Janjua's comments. An email and phone message left with Dainty were not responded to.
Courtesy: Cricinfo – (Author Peter Della Penna)
