The United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) slammed back at Indianapolis officials who on Friday said they were cancelling that controversial National Cricket Tournament scheduled for mid-August at the highly controversial $6 million World Sports Park the city built specifically for a national and international cricket tournaments. In a press release issued Monday afternoon, blasted Indianapolis on a number of points. Sunil Kumar, the Project Manager for the national tournament and President of the Northern California Cricket Association said, “The costs for teams, families and fans to travel and stay in Indianapolis were just exceptionally high. There are rarely if ever enough direct flights available and that was causing teams to have to take more personal time off.” Kumar added that, “We were not able to get a large enough sponsor to subsidize these costs for all regions and the forty plus leagues involved in the national championship if the tournament was to be held in a non-traditional cricket market.” The Association’s statement also sharply disagreed with the assertions of the Director of Indy Parks John Williams and Mayor Ballard’s spokesman Marc Lotter that the City hadn’t any communication with the Cricket Association in months. Said the Association, “However, USACA begs to disagree with the City of Indianapolis on meetings and communication, as there was an appointed project manager
with frequent meetings and multiple open lines of communication.
City’s World Sports Park where cricket tourney was to held. Located on S Post Rd
The key issue for the tournament was around funding and USACA notes that no significant funding sources had been identified to recognize the high costs of hosting a tournament in Indianapolis.” The City announced over a year ago that it had secured a national cricket tournament to held in the city. Mayor Ballard then ordered a crash program to remodel a southeast side park into a World Sports Park that would house cricket tournaments along with sports like rugby, soccer and lacrosse. Indy Parks was the lead agency in helping tickets and building up support for the cricket tournament and were helped by Visit Indy, the convention and visitors association and the Indiana Sports Corporation. Over $6 million in dollars set aside to rebuild infrastructure was used to build the cricket field and other amenities. Now for a tournament that won’t be held in Indianapolis. Read the United States of America Cricket Association’s Statement Here. USACA NATIONAL TOURNAMENT PRESS RELEASE AND STATEMENT
