The next month or two will tell us if US cricket is still ruled by a despot or if there is "spring" in the air.
Gladstone Dainty has managed to cling to power though seemingly illegal tactics -- from not announcing the Atlantic region's results in July to keeping Masood Chik as the Central East rep despite his being recalled by a 10-0 vote and suspending John Aaron without due process to interfering in the women's cricket selections to claiming to clean USACA by deciding which leagues can vote and by asking all regions to hold elections again as part of this "pristine" campaign.
Gladstone Dainty appears to be very bad news for US cricket. He doesn't appear to care about the wellness of US cricket -- the precipitous decline of the US in the world scene in the last three years is well documented. He seemingly eliminates (thankfully only virtually) his board opponents and replaces them with yes-men. He is known to deliver selection and travel favors for a price or a vote. He is in power because there are enough other shady administrators running leagues and regions in US cricket who become Dainty's yes-men for the usual reasons.
There are three declared nominees as of now for President of USACA in the December elections. Dainty has not announced his intention but has spread rumors that he will run to some and that he will not run to others. The first to announce his intention is the ex-First-VP, Nabeel Ahmed, who decided to quit the USACA board many months back instead of openly confronting Dainty and his evil ways. Next to announce is a less-known but well-heeled businessman from Florida, Max Quereshi, known to throw money around as needed. And the latest to announce his intention is Ram Vardarajan, once a threat to Dainty but now his compatriot in the controversially-appointed board of Cricket Holdings America, the place where serious money is expected to pour in from the outside world but not necessarily into US cricket at the grass-roots level.
To be honest, none of the candidates inspire confidence. Any links to Dainty only adds to one's worry. But US cricket suffers from a serious lack of honest cricket-first administrators and so it may well be a case of choosing the least of all evils.
One of the key determinants of this election is which leagues get to vote. That will be decided by the so-called Dainty-sponsored compliance criteria which effectively appears to be a front for who will likely vote from Dainty or his friends. The only recourse left to leagues that are summarily banned or suspended is legal action. It may well come to that while real cricket in the US takes a back seat as it has for the last three years.
We will know how all this plays out between now and end of the year.
