USACA's membership suspended by the ICC last June after findings of a review group detailed "significant concerns about the governance, finance, reputation and cricketing activities of USACA". Among the findings later released was ICC chief executive David Richardson's characterization of USACA's administration as being "unprofessional and untrustworthy".
However, the same ICC are still putting money into the USA, without offering the same for other ICC Americas teams such as Bermuda, Canada and Suriname.
Today we find out the USA Cricket debt surpasses $4.3 million.
The USA Cricket Association's federal return filings for the tax year 2014 show a 5% increase in the amount of organizational debt, amounting to a total of $4,319,414. The latest figure was recently made public by USACA ahead of the board's annual general meeting scheduled for April 9th at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida.
The year 2014 saw significant problems for USACA on and off the field, with chief executive Darren Beazley resigning in the first quarter of the year, a move that preceded the collapse of an agreement to host the USACA National Championship in Indianapolis, which included arrangements to have matches televised on ESPN digital platforms. Under increasing financial duress, USACA later had to cancel a preparation camp to Jamaica ahead of the team's participation in WCL Division Three in Malaysia, where they were relegated after a fifth-place finish.
The amount of funding USACA received from the ICC in 2014 went down 23%, from $366,762 in 2013 to $283,928. According to the tax return information, four USACA board members - including president Gladstone Dainty and former treasurer John Thickett - entered a claim on the tax return of having loaned USACA a combined total of more than $32,300 for "operational expenses" to help cover the difference, though the returns state there were no written agreements submitted for the loans by the board members.
