American Cricket Enterprises (ACE), the parent business of Major League Cricket (MLC), filed a lawsuit against USA Cricket (USAC) on Tuesday for “improper termination” of their contract, intensifying a power struggle that has been at the centre of cricket in the USA for more than a month.
Since May 2019, the two companies have been business partners. However, USAC terminated their partnership a few weeks ago, claiming that American Cricket Enterprises had not “fulfilled its contractual and fiduciary obligations,” which included payments owed to the national team and support staff. American Cricket Enterprises denied this, asserting that it had made a higher offer than was first agreed upon.
“USAC’s handling of the ACE agreement has been chaotic and reckless,” an ACE news release stated on Wednesday.
It exemplifies USAC’s lack of good faith. Instead of putting together teams capable of building on their previous achievements, a small number of USAC directors have decided to put politics first.
“ACE’s large expenditures in American cricket over the past six years, as well as the sport’s ongoing development in the United States, have been put in jeopardy by these measures.
“USAC’s wrongful conduct cannot go unanswered, so today, ACE filed legal proceedings against USAC regarding its improper termination of the ACE agreement.”
The players from the USA are uncomfortable with this circumstance. The MLC, the nation’s most well-known cricket competition, and Minor League Cricket, its affiliated development league, are both operated by ACE. It also runs other sites in Morrisville, Florida, and California, and owns the land where the High Performance Centre at Grand Prairie is located near Dallas, Texas.
USAC stated that it was amenable to renegotiations when it terminated its agreement with ACE on August 21. It even put the decision to sever ties on hold for seven days. However, on September 16, “USAC then unilaterally reinstated its original termination, effective today, without holding any meaningful discussions directly with ACE”.
This standoff occurs less than six months before the men’s T20 World Cup and two months after the 2025 MLC season was successfully staged. In preparation for the USA’s participation in the tournament in India and Sri Lanka, ACE organised a training camp for 35 elite men’s players, which included three 50-over and three Twenty20 matches versus West Indies A in Morrisville.
“Is all of that still happening? For the athletes to prepare for such things, these camps must be held,” USA all-rounder Corey Anderson stated recently. “All of those things are very much in a big question mark at the moment, which again just creates more uncertainty around the players.”
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