USACA targets massive player growth "American cricket"

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USACA targets massive player growth

 

USA Cricket Association (USACA) chief executive Darren Beazley has announced a goal of increasing the number of recreational players in the country to 50,000. The target is the chief aim of USACA's strategic plan for 2014-16, which was unveiled over the weekend.

According to 2012 ICC Development Programme data, USA has 32,066 players, including 17,820 registered in hardball leagues. USA had 26,935 amateur players in 2009 according to ICC data, meaning that there was a 19% increase in playing numbers over the last three years. For comparison at the Associate level, Ireland had a 113% increase from 18,969 to 40,414 players in the last three years according to ICC data. Achieving the 50,000 target in USACA's three-year strategic plan would require a 56% rise in participants, but Beazley says it can be done through recruiting more women and junior players.

"US cricket has really been crying out for a plan," Beazley told ESPNcricinfo. "This is not going to be the panacea, that's for sure. It's only really a road map for the next step. I wanted to make sure it was collaborative, clear and gave people a direction and I think it does that.

"I think it's achievable. That's going to come from a real focus on getting more girls and women playing, and getting more kids eight-years-and-up playing, and really trying to ensure over the next three years that the standard of competition that the seniors play in is a good quality and is split into grades, so you have an A grade, a B grade and a premier league."

Currently, USA has only 930 junior players registered in hardball leagues with about half of those playing in the NY Public Schools Athletic League, the only high-school cricket league in America. Beazley would not elaborate on how many junior players he wants as part of the 50,000-target, but said that more must be done to produce similar style programmes and structures as opposed to introductory clinics. From that standpoint, Beazley's plan differs greatly from the work done by the US Youth Cricket Association (USYCA), which has focused on donating startup cricket sets mainly for use in gym classes to get children exposed to cricket for the first time.

"It's one thing to get lots of people tasting the game. It's another thing to get them playing competitions week in-week out," Beazley said. "We want kids to experience in a school or in a camp environment, but the big push is then how do we get them to play in a six-to-eight-week competition because that's where you learn your cricket. On that basis, we're probably forgoing huge amounts of numbers just going out and doing lots of one-day and two-hour clinics because that's not sustainable long term. It's good and it gets kids exposed to the game but it doesn't have any sustainable or observable outcome at the end. What we're doing is forgoing huge amounts of numbers to make sure that we put in place structures."

Beazley indicated that high performance manager Andy Pick and other staff that may come on board will be crucial in executing the plan. He said increasing sponsorship and corporate support will enable more staff to be hired and hopefully will also allow USACA to establish funding pools for facilities development and a high performance center.

"It's great to have the plan, but on the next phase - and it's why we've been working on it so long - we're going to start to roll out the resourcing plan, which will look at human resources and financial resources to make sure that we can actually deliver on the plan," Beazley said "USACA as an organisation has to grow. We can't do it with two or three staff.

"If cricket in this country is going to be around in 20 years, then we need to go out and commercialise it. In order to do that, when a commercial company wants to have a good look at you, they're going to say, 'What do you stand for? What are your values? What are you trying to achieve?' That's what 2013 has been all about. It's been trying to define what USACA is all about. It's about trying to, as an organization, work out what it is that we want to achieve and then communicating that to our members and to the broader cricket community."

Beazley believes USACA will be able to develop revenue streams by, among other things, selling broadcast rights to next year's USACA National Championship, set to be held at a new facility in Indianapolis. An increase in funding is identified as an important part of the strategic plan, which states that USACA should have a "commercial plan developed that reduces current reliance on ICC funding". About 75% of USACA's annual revenue comes from the ICC. At the same time though, Beazley doesn't want stakeholders to be entirely dependent on USACA to alleviate funding issues locally.

"What we don't want is USACA to be seen as a big cash cow or the bank because we're not," Beazley said. "We're a charitable organisation. We're here to help and guide. We don't have massive pots of money but what we do have is expertise."

Ultimately though, Beazley said in order for USACA's strategic plan for 2014-16 to succeed, it will be up to local volunteers to buy into it and contribute the manpower necessary to pull it off.

"The people that are on the ground are going to be critical in doing this," Beazley said. "We're not going to be able to have 500 people on the payroll to deliver this. We just couldn't do it. Some volunteers work massive hours and are prepared to give that and that's the sort of people we want."

It's a peaceful and sunny spring day in upstate New York, far from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. The rest of the state outside of the five boroughs of New York City is an alternate universe of sorts. Much of it is quaint and quiet, with gently rolling hills and sprawling green pastures.

Cross River is a town in this alternate universe, situated in Westchester County, about 15 miles north of Chappaqua, home of Bill and Hillary Clinton. A group of sixth graders at John Jay Middle School are using the afternoon to embody that spirit of living in an alternate universe. While their peers do warm-ups for lacrosse, athletics and baseball practice, about 20 kids have seized the centre of the football field to play cricket for the very first time, with new equipment provided by the US Youth Cricket Association (USYCA).

"It was awesome and it was a great experience," 12-year-old Lily Gengler said. Lily was the only girl in the group of kids, but wore one of the biggest smiles after the day was through. She said she'd love to play the sport again and when asked why, three of her classmates jumped in and chorused, "Because it's fun!"

USYCA president Jamie Harrison is one of the men responsible for delivering that fun. Harrison, a 46-year-old Maryland native, first encountered cricket as a history teacher three years ago when he took his class on a field trip to Virginia. A historical re-enactment of a cricket match caught his students' attention and by the end of the day, the discussion on the bus ride home revolved around runs and wickets instead of the founding fathers.

Harrison wanted to support his students so they started the first high school cricket team in Maryland in 2009. Unfortunately, it was shut down in 2010 in the wake of the economic recession. Harrison's passion didn't die, though, and less than a year after founding and becoming the president of the USYCA, he has become the point man for schools across America looking to learn and play cricket.

"In the last month, I've gotten email requests from schools in 50 different school districts across the country," Harrison said. "Anchorage, Alaska, wants cricket sets in their schools. The last count was, in over 25 states we've had schools get cricket sets from us, or at least they put the request in."

The USYCA is committed to donating at least one set to any school that makes a request. This has helped eliminate an obstacle for some schools that otherwise would not have had the opportunity to experience cricket, such as Highland Park, William Paca and Kenmoor Elementary Schools in Prince George's County, Maryland.

"These schools are all low-income schools," said Charles Silberman, a physical education teacher who has taught cricket at all three aforementioned schools. "They deal with poverty issues. Some of them are really struggling, their families are struggling. So something like this that doesn't have a cost barrier to get into is really exciting."

For schools at the other end of the financial spectrum like John Jay, there is always the option to purchase more sets.

Harrison has been shrewd in making the right connections to forward his cause. He reached out to Cricket Australia, who put him in contact with the company that produces cricket sets for the Milo in2Cricket programme, who donated 500 sets to USYCA for distribution. Harrison also got Damien Martyn, Nathan Bracken and Mike Young to speak up for the USYCA mission. Bracken's Twitter page currently features him and his son wearing USYCA t-shirts.

All this help is making an impact, and Harrison hopes that more goodwill is on the way in order to keep up with the increasing demand from schools that have caught the cricket bug.

"Those 500 sets are going to be exhausted sometime this summer," Harrison said. "They'll be all shipped out. We're going to have to find someone who is willing, either from a completely altruistic standpoint or because they see the vehicle we can become for them… someone who is willing to donate so we can purchase the next 500 sets, because the schools are asking for them as fast as we can send them out. I'd love to see USACA and the ICC get involved and say this is a worthy cause and this is going to make a difference in bringing cricket to the United States and making America a cricket-playing nation."

It's one thing to send cricket kits to the schools that request them. It's another to actually show up and explain how they're supposed to be used. The USYCA does its best to contact a local cricket club and coordinate with them to personally deliver the kits while giving a brief tutorial on both the history and rules of the game.

At John Jay, the instruction was provided by Rakesh Kallem, president of West Haven CC in Connecticut and a board member of the USYCA, and his West Haven CC club mate Satyapal Salla. The two men drove 90 minutes in order to put on a demo, where they emphasised having fun rather than bogging the kids down with terminology.

"The focus has been to bring awareness but not to expect too much from these kids yet because they are still trying to pick up a game," Kallem said. Most of the kids said after the demo that the hardest thing to understand was running with the bat instead of dropping it after hitting the ball. Other baseball tendencies could be observed, as they begged to be the next "pitcher", and cocked the bat above their shoulder before taking a swing.

On the flip side, the sixth graders quickly picked up on the fact that it was okay to leave a ball alone if it wasn't going to hit the stumps. There were hardly any run-outs either, as the communication between players after hitting the ball was impressive, as well as the patience and understanding to know when not to run. The fielding and catching were superb, showing that kids who grow up developing good hand-eye coordination in other sports can transfer that easily into cricket.

"I thought it was a lot more complicated, but when they explained it, it made life and everything a lot easier," Gengler said.

Kim Mammoser, the physical education teacher at the school who contacted the USYCA to come and put on the demonstration, was encouraged by the game after watching it being played for the first time. Even though she originally intended to have the cricket kits just for intramurals and recess, she wants to start putting the game into her PE classes too.

"I just think it requires everyone to be on board," Mammoser said. "It just keeps the kids moving more with the sprinting back and forth, game strategy, communication. As far as character building between the kids goes, they need to work together to get the ball in. I think it would be a good addition to our programme."

For Jamie Harrison and the USYCA, making sure cricket becomes a good addition not just at John Jay Middle School but at schools across America is the top priority.

The USA Cricket Association announced on Tuesday the appointment of former England Under-19 and Canada coach Andy Pick as USACA High Performance Manager in a move aimed at helping the USA form a more professional administrative cricket structure. Pick has been serving as the ICC Americas High Performance Manager since 2009 and will still be partially employed in that role as he splits his workload between the ICC Americas office in Toronto and USACA's headquarters in Florida.

"There is a lot of natural talent in the USA," Pick said in a USACA media release. "In the past, the pathway from talent discovery through to players becoming established international cricketers has not always been clear. Having been involved in high performance planning and delivery for the last 14 years, I hope I can make that pathway more accessible and transparent."

The official announcement of Pick's new role with USACA was hinted at through his more frequent appearances around USA teams and programmes in the past six months. In March, he was in Florida for USA's unofficial three-match 50-over series against Bermuda ahead of ICC WCL Division Three and was present as a sounding board during selection meetings to pick the squad that went to Bermuda a month later for the tournament.

In June, he organised and oversaw the inaugural USACA U-19 Selection Combine, which was designed as a new method to select USA's U-19 squad for the ICC Americas U-19 Division One tournament. In the past, USACA had used domestic tournaments as a selection mechanism. Pick was in constant contact with USACA chief executive Darren Beazley while at the ICC Americas U-19 tournament and at the conclusion of the July event, he drove from Toronto to Miami to work with Beazley on a plan for the USA senior team to prepare them for the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in November.

"USACA is extremely pleased to have the support of an experienced cricket administrator such as Andy Pick to provide a dedicated focus on establishing the correct structures and processes to ensure USACA identifies and develops talent, wherever talented men and women reside across the country," Beazley said in the release. "His intimate knowledge of cricket in the USA and of our playing lists will be very important, particularly as our men's team commences preparation for the ICC T20 Qualifer in Dubai in November."

Pick has been a regular source of guidance and assistance to the USA through his ICC Americas position. In the winter of 2011, he spent time in New York and New Jersey organising weekly training courses for the region's junior players and coaches. He also set up a coaching clinic in March 2011 for the New York Public Schools Athletic League, the only high school cricket league in USA.

In April 2011, he organised a month-long training stint with reigning English county champions Nottinghamshire - where Pick played from 1983 to 1997 and also served as bowling coach - for USA players Muhammad Ghous and Adrian Gordon. Four months later, Pick and ICC Americas colleague Wendell Coppin conducted a 10-day training camp in Barbados for the USA Women's team to aid their preparation for the 2011 ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh.

In October 2010, Pick stated in an interview with ESPNcricinfo that he was impressed with the "abundance of natural talent" in the USA, but was worried that structures were not in place for proper development. "If I'm brutally honest, they have at the moment little framework beneath it to continue providing and developing their best players. That is part of my role, to try to work with the US to see if we can help rectify that situation." With his new role at USACA, Pick now has more control and authority to carry out that mission.