Recently, I received an email from a cricket fan who was genuinely upset to learn that a USYCA member organization was hosting a one-day Cricket Australia/USACA coaching clinic. He asked me, if I was opposed to USACA, how could I allow this?

Of course, I explained to him that member organizations operate independently of USYCA (and ACF, for that matter) and are free to work with anyone they choose. But, more to the point, I explained that my grievances against USACA (and the ICC) were about behavior, not existence.

When USACA behaves badly, I point it out. But when USACA does something that (on the surface at least) appears to be a good thing, I don’t criticize it, and I certainly don’t ask that our member organizations abstain from them.

In my opinion, what American cricket needs is more cricket, everywhere. What we have long lacked is a national governing body that encourages the growth and expansion of all cricket, regardless of political stripe.

For too long we have watched people being discouraged, isolated and ostracized for trying to promote cricket without first seeking the blessings of the right people or the right organizations. For too long, cricket in America has suffered at the hands of power-hungry despots who label the actions of some as “unsanctioned,” simply in hopes of crushing it.

Too often the cricket they seek to crush is feared as a potential threat to certain people’s hegemony, or the individuals backing the cricket failed to curry favor from the right people first. Enough already.

America has no excess of cricket to spare. We should encourage cricket, not suppress it.

I want to state categorically that, as the leader of the American Cricket Federation and of US Youth Cricket, I will encourage all of our member organizations to do whatever they can to play more cricket – even if that means adding a membership in USACA so that players can participate in regional activities.

I am not threatened by those opportunities for play that USACA can offer, and I would hope that USACA is not threatened by what is offered by ACF. If we truly are putting the interests of American cricketers first, then we cannot discourage them from seeking to play more cricket!

To do otherwise would be to betray ourselves as mean-spirited political animals, interested chiefly in power, and only indirectly in our members’ welfare.

There are now two great national bodies in US cricket, both combining to provide opportunities for American cricketers’ growth and development. This combination, and the competition between us, should be a boon for the game in the States, as both of us race to outperform the other.

Exclusivity is an enemy of this, and therefore has no place in American cricket. Its proponents are enemies of the game, and merely practitioners of petty political intrigues. I now challenge USACA, in the spirit of cricket, to join me in support of this principle, putting aside the seductive arguments of faction in favor of the greater good.