USA Cricket (USAC) has been told to “reset” its leadership if the United States wants a team on the start-line at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. In an e-mail dated 10 July, the ICC laid out a six-step “roadmap” aimed at helping USAC secure national governing body (NGB) recognition from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) – a prerequisite for any sport on the LA28 schedule.
Cricket made the Olympic cut in 2023, one of five new sports invited by the IOC largely on the back of the game’s television pull in South Asia. As hosts, the USA are pencilled in for both men’s and women’s medal events, yet their own governing body still falls short of USOPC standards.
The ICC’s Normalisation Committee, chaired by Jay Shah, has spent the past few months in dialogue with USAC chair Venu Pisike and chief executive Johnathan Atkeison – first via video call in April, then face-to-face in Los Angeles in June. According to people present, the message was unmistakable: either fix the governance gaps quickly or risk being frozen out of the Games.
“A stage-wise approach shall be implemented to restore regulatory compliance and functional integrity to USA Cricket, with the ultimate aim of securing National Governing Body (NGB) recognition by the USOPC and eligibility for LA28 Olympic participation,” the ICC wrote. “The Committee is committed to helping to restore the integrity and credibility of USA Cricket. The roadmap provides a structured and lawful pathway to achieving NGB status and ensuring that USA Cricket is eligible to participate in LA28 as a fully compliant Olympic sporting body.”
Step one is blunt. All current independent directors must go, to be replaced by three fresh appointees agreed by the ICC and USOPC. One of the trio “must” be a woman. The present ten-member board includes Pisike, recently installed in July 2023, plus Anj Balusu, Atul Rai, Kuljeet Singh Nijjar, Arjun Gona, former USA internationals Srinivas Salver and Nadia Gruny, and independents Pintoo Shah and David Haubert. A third independent seat has been vacant since Patricia Whittaker’s resignation last December.
Further measures – financial transparency, member elections, athlete representation and a revamped constitution – follow in later stages, though timelines have not been published publicly. The Normalisation Committee intends to brief the full ICC Board at its AGM in Singapore on 20 July.
Privately, officials accept the plan is ambitious in both scope and timing. USOPC certification processes can stretch beyond a year; LA28 is now less than three summers away. Even so, the ICC believes swift movement is essential. One administrator familiar with the talks put it simply: “If we don’t tidy up now, we’ll be answering awkward questions in 2027, not lifting medals in 2028.”
For USAC, the choice is stark. Cooperate and earn the right to field sides on home soil, or resist and risk seeing another body – or even an interim committee – given the Olympic slot.
