USA Cricket has been successful in having legal claims brought against it by American Cricket Premier League (‘ACPL’) dismissed by the District Court in Colorado.
The legal claims (which also included – among others – the International Cricket Council as a defendant) arose following the RFP process conducted by USA Cricket in early 2019 to identify a commercial entity for it to partner with to develop a professional T20 league in the USA and to grow the sport generally in the USA. Following a comprehensive process, USA Cricket chose American Cricket Enterprises (‘ACE’), also trading as Major League Cricket (‘MLC’), as its partner and it has been working very closely with ACE/MLC in that endeavor since then.
As part of that partnership, USA Cricket and ACE/MLC recently announced plans to launch a ground-breaking nationwide Twenty20 domestic tournament across 22 cities in the United States as the first step on the path towards establishing Major League Cricket, a fully professional league in the United States that will be launched subsequently. The court decision, which was announced on 12 March, emphatically dismissed all eight claims made by ACPL.
Iain Higgins, CEO of USA Cricket, stated, “We have been confident throughout this case that the RFP process which was followed was robust and fair to all parties and that the ultimate decision to appoint ACE/MLC as our commercial partner was in the best interests of the development of cricket in the country. ACE/MLC had an extremely comprehensive business plan with a highly credible individual and institutional investor group, allied with a deep knowledge of the American and international cricket landscape. Even when the court was presented with an inaccurate factual narrative of the RFP process, we were confident that it would agree with our arguments and are pleased that it has been unequivocal in its dismissal of this case.”
Higgins continued, “USA Cricket recently moved its offices to the Bay Area for the purposes of maximizing efficiency and ensuring strategic alignment with our commercial partner ACE/MLC. We have witnessed first-hand the efforts made to put together the plans to deliver a nationwide Minor League Cricket this coming season as well as the plans that are evolving in respect of the launch Major League Cricket in due course, and I am both extremely impressed and excited. As part of this, there are significant long term planning and lobbying efforts ongoing to improve facilities and develop venues across the country, all of which have been initiated by ACE/MLC and are fully supported by USA Cricket. The progress over the past few months vindicates our decision to partner with ACE/MLC in the first instance, and the dismissal of ACPL’s legal claims now allows us all to fully focus our collective efforts on these and other efforts to grow the game in this country.”
