New Delhi [India], October 15 : The directors of the USA Cricket Board (USAC) have called for the International Cricket Council's (ICC) immediate intervention to remove the rival group of directors, which includes the chair, Venu Pisike. Since the ICC suspended the USA board, the fallout and divide within the organisation have deepened.
Amid the ongoing turmoil, two current directors, Arjun Rao Gona and Kuljit Singh Nijjar and Patricia Whittaker, who was removed by USAC last year as an independent director, have asked the ICC to investigate the organisation's "collapse". In their joint statement, they have also requested that the ICC conduct a forensic audit of USAC's dealings and make the findings public.
"We call for immediate and decisive intervention not to punish, but to rebuild what has been broken. This is no longer a crisis of management; it is a test of integrity and courage," the trio said in the statement as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
The statement from Gona, Nijjar and Whittaker comes in the aftermath of the USAC's media release last week. The USAC complained and said the board could not "comprehend" the ICC's decision on September 23 to suspend it. According to ESPNcricinfo, Pisike chaired a meeting on October 1, following which the USAC announced that it was filing for bankruptcy as part of a financial restructuring.
The decision to file for bankruptcy was made by five directors, including Pisike, Srini Salver, David Haubert, Pintoo Shah, and Anj Balusu. USAC currently has nine directors after Whittaker's exit. The remaining four directors at that meeting, Gona, Nijjar, Nadia Gruny and Atul Rai, left in protest.
The ICC suspended the USAC due to "repeated and continued breaches" of its obligations as an ICC Member under the ICC's Constitution. The ICC Normalisation Committee, headed by Jay Shah, has outlined a six-step roadmap which begins with an organisational revamp of USAC. In the changes, three new independent directors replace the existing Board, which would step down and pave the way for fresh elections, according to ESPNcricinfo.
Nijjar, Gona and Whittaker want ICC's Normalisation Committee to take control of USAC immediately and "go beyond administrative control and conduct a full, independent investigation into the root causes of USA Cricket's collapse, identifying every act of constitutional breach, misuse of authority, and conflict of interest."
"Conduct a full forensic audit of all financial transactions, contracts, appointments, and legal decisions taken under the current regime, and publish the findings to the public to restore trust, confidence and transparency. Safeguard players, competitions, and development programs during this transition, ensuring that athletes and fans do not suffer for failures of leadership," the statement from the trio added.