An Open Letter to the Future USA Cricket CEO

An important piece from Tom Melville, just as relevant to Canadian cricket administration as it is to our neighbours in the south
“Above all, know what you’re getting into. That this is cricket in America, an animal unlike any other on the face of the planet. Every one of your predecessors who held a full time cricket position in North America (former CEOs, NIRSA cricket directors, regional development managers) did not, and their terms were short, ineffective and highly forgettable. And though never publicly stated, most must have left thinking: “I made a mistake taking this job.” The path to cricket failure in this country is broad; the path to success is narrow.

If you do not come from a cricket background know you’ll be in a strange, bewildering, world involved daily with a sport that, though in America, is completely out of sight, out of mind, of the average American. If you come from a cricket playing background know that you are no longer in a cricket culture, where your sport which was admired, aspired to, looked up to, is now a sport ignored, unknown, and even ridiculed here. Your self reliance, your perseverance, will have to be Herculean.

Know that there are two separate, distinct and polar opposite cricket markets in this country: one in reality (the expat cricket community) the other only in potential (mainstream Americans). Which do you serve?”

Full letter

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