Atul Rai Succeeds Paraag Marathe As Chairman Of USA Cricket.

Days after being chosen as the Club Director, Atul Rai replaced Paraag Marathe as Chairman of USA Cricket. In the first board of directors meeting following his appointment as a director with Kuljit Singh Nijjar, Rai replaced Marathe. With the votes of Avinash Gaje, Nijjar, Srinivas Salver, and Venu Pisike, and the abstentions of Sushil Nadkarni, Catherine Carlson, and Nadia Gruny, Atul Rai was elected chairman.

Cricbuzz is aware that the election of the Chairman (who is chosen by the BODs) was never on the meeting’s agenda since the abstainers were baffled by the hastily called election of the board chairman. According to what is known, Carlson and Gruny expressed disbelief at the election’s timing and the fact that it was held without prior warning. Following the loss of the last vote, Carlson left the meeting, displaying her disgust.

After announcing publicly that he would be resigning from the chairmanship, Marathe could find the removal particularly humiliating. In a press release from USA Cricket in May of this year, it was announced that Marathe would end his tenure as chairman once the board had chosen a replacement for the independent director position he had held concurrently with his chairmanship since 2018 and for which he had served as chairman since that position was created.

Marathe, a well-known sports businessman and vice president of the 49ers club, was chosen as the first-ever chairman of USA Cricket in August 2018 for a 2-year term. Following his initial appointment, which lasted for around 30 months, he was promptly re-appointed for a 3-year tenure. His second term turned out to be fairly turbulent after Pisike and Salver served him and the other four board members with a lawsuit about an allegedly unlawful constitutional change.

Delegating control of the treasury from departing director Suraj Vishwanathan and developing a plan to have the financial audit cleared with an independent auditor in order to have the ICC release funds to the tune of $300,000 payable to USA Cricket were two of the most pressing agenda items that appeared to go unresolved for the cash-strapped board. Due to financial difficulty, the board failed to pay its employees during the July prior pay period.

The Nominating and Governance Committee of the Board, a division that oversees internal elections for the board, was under consideration for possible dissolution by the new board, which cited the members’ terms as having expired. Complete overhauls of the board committees appear to be coming as a result of the shift in the balance of power.