USA Cricket
USA Cricket (USAC) is the governing body of cricket in the United States. USA Cricket operates all of the United States national representative cricket sides, including the men's and women's national teams and youth teams, as well as Minor League Cricket, which is the highest level of domestic American Twenty20 cricket. The body was unveiled on September 24, 2017, as a proposed successor to the United States of America Cricket Association, which had been expelled from the International Cricket Council (ICC) in June 2017 due to governance issues. In January 2019, it was approved as an  associate member of the ICC. History. In June 2017, the ICC voted to expel the USACA from the ICC, due to issues with governance of the sport in the United States. Control of the United States national team was handed over to ICC Americas until a new board was formed. On September 24, 2017 (the anniversary of the 1844 Canada-United States cricket match, and on the heels of a U.S. victory in the Canada-U.S. K.A. Auty Cup), USA Cricket was announced as a new proposed sanctioning body, including a logo unveiled by Denver-based group Adrenalin (using a  cricket bat as the main symbol, deeming it to have stronger symbolism with the sport among the U.S. audience than other common symbols, such as the stumps or ball). The new body stated that its goal was to help build popularity for the game among a "mainstream" audience (as opposed to predominantly expats from other regions), with project manager Eric Parthen describing it as a "fresh start" that would "celebrate the past and look to the future". USA Cricket elected its first independent board in mid-2018. In November 2018, USA Cricket put out a request for proposals surrounding the establishment  of a domestic Twenty20 league by 2021, with goals to "engage existing fans and grow new ones to support the bullish vision this Board has for cricket in the US", and "support the sustainable development of cricketing infrastructure across the United States" (noting that Central Broward Regional Park was the only ICC-certified cricket grounds in the country). In January 2019, USA Cricket was officially approved by the ICC as its 105th associate member. In May 2019, USA Cricket announced that it had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a $1 billion investment in its proposed  T20 league; ACE's partners include Satyan Gajwani and Vineet Jain of The Times Group, and Willow TV founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan. ACE will provide investments for the league (including developmental and professional circuits), facilities, and support of the U.S. national teams. During its inaugural annual general meeting in February 2020, USA Cricket announced plans to launch its franchise-based T20 league Major League Cricket in 2021, stage the inaugural season of its development league Minor League Cricket in 2020, back proposals for cricket to be staged at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and pursue bids  to host a future ICC tournament in the country between 2023 and 2031. It was also stated that USA Cricket may attempt to pursue full member status with the ICC. In October 2020, USA Cricket unveiled a "foundational plan" for 2020–23, including plans to promote youth and women's cricket, primarily focus on T20 (including the launch of Major League Cricket in 2022, delayed from 2021 due to COVID-19), and partner with Cricket West Indies on bids to host ICC events in the United States. The organization plans to initially target its activities towards markets where there is "already significant  interest in and passion for the sport". USA Cricket also set long-term goals to reach ICC full member status by 2030. It aimed to qualify for the 2022 Under-19 Cricket World Cup (however, all qualification tournaments were cancelled due to COVID-19, and Canada thus qualified automatically based on previous performance), and to "develop a clear and balanced long-term international playing calendar for our national teams that includes more content, played more frequently against competitive opposition." In November 2020, USA Cricket announced that ACE had leased AirHogs Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas (which previously operated as the home of  the recently folded Texas AirHogs baseball team), with plans to redevelop it as a cricket-specific stadium and as home field of a Texas-based franchise in Major League Cricket. In March 2021, two USA Cricket board members filed a lawsuit against CEO Iain Higgins and five other board members, alleging irregularities in its election process, including a referendum to immediately grant voting rights to members rather than requiring that they be members for 12 months (allegedly expanding the voting base to over 20,000 eligible members) that was implemented despite not meeting the required supermajority, and the organization having indefinitely  delayed annual elections that were required to occur at the end of November. The election continued to be delayed . On November 15, 2021, it was reported that Higgins had stepped down as CEO, amid internal issues within the organization. The next day, the ICC announced that the United States will co-host the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup with the West Indies.