Legal counsel for the USA Cricket Association (USACA) has sent former executive secretary Kenwyn Williams a cease and desist letter, ordering him to refrain from filing a temporary restraining order against Broward County Florida

Peter Della Penna22-Jun-2016Legal counsel for the USA Cricket Association (USACA) has sent former executive secretary Kenwyn Williams a cease and desist letter, ordering him to refrain from filing a temporary restraining order against Broward County Florida over the sanctioning of Caribbean Premier League (CPL) matches scheduled for next month at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill. Williams had sent an email on June 13 asking the County to cancel the six CPL matches and in the days since has progressively stepped up his threats to sue the county over the sanctioning of the matches.”You have no authority to bring this lawsuit or other legal action in the name of USACA or any of its regions or members,” Marshall Beil, USACA’s representing attorney at the law firm McGuire Woods, LLP, wrote to Williams in an email on Tuesday afternoon. USACA president Gladstone Dainty, ICC head of global development Tim Anderson and Broward County officials were also copied on the email, which has been obtained by ESPNcricinfo. “No suit has been authorized by USACA or any subdivision of USACA. You are not an officer or director of USACA, and you are not authorized to act on behalf of USACA or any region or subdivision of USACA.”USACA demands that you cease and desist from threatening and/or instituting legal action in the name of USACA or any region, league or member of USACA. If you proceed with your threatened action, USACA will inform the court of your complete lack of standing and authority to sue and will hold you personally responsible for any damages, costs and fees, including legal fees, your actions may cause.”The current imbroglio involving Williams and USACA was set in motion on June 9, when USACA vice president Owen Grey issued a letter to the ICC informing it that USACA would “take action” against the ICC’s continued suspension of it. Grey stated that USACA had appointed Williams to represent it in a legal capacity and that Williams would be the USACA delegate attending this month’s ICC annual conference in Scotland.Williams then sent Broward County and CPL officials the June 13 email in which he asked them to cancel the six CPL matches at the end of July, claiming that the county had not pursued proper sanctioning. The ICC had stripped USACA of its sanctioning authority for games in the USA in June 2015 at the time of its administrative suspension, though Williams claimed in his letter to county officials that USACA continues to maintain sanctioning authority and it had yet to be sought from USACA.According to documents obtained by ESPNcricinfo, Williams sent a subsequent email on June 14, notifying Broward County officials that he was intending to pursue litigation against Broward County Parks & Recreation manager Duncan Finch for “being in violation of the sanctioning policy of USA Cricket” and that in order to avoid “unnecessary litigation” Williams was reaching out to achieve “an amicable resolution to this dispute”.”As we believe that we will suffer irreparable harm, we do intend to seek a court order granting a preliminary injunction,” Williams wrote to Patrice Eichen of the Broward County Attorney’s Office. Eichen responded on June 16, telling Williams that the County had issued a sanctioning permit to the CPL for the six matches.”The County has determined that CPL has complied with or is in the process of complying with the County’s requirements related to issuance of a Park Permit to host the events at CBRP,” Eichen wrote. “The County does not believe there is any violation of County policies to justify taking action to stop the upcoming events.”Williams then responded once again on Monday, June 20, attaching a draft document for a temporary restraining order in which USACA’s Southeast Regional board – which represents Florida among other states – is listed as a plaintiff in proposed legal action against proposed defendants Broward County Parks and Recreation, Finch and Lauderhill mayor Richard Kaplan. In the draft seeking injunctive relief, Williams repeatedly bases his course for action on a position that USACA still maintains sanctioning authority for matches in the USA.”All cricket matches in the USA or cricket events held in the USA require the approval of USACA unless they are already specifically approved or pre-approved,” the draft document states. “Defendants have intervened and bypassed the sanction procedures of USACA to partner directly with the CPL to tortuously interfere with USACA’s business relationship, causing irreparable injury to plaintiffs’ revenue potential and reputation.”Among the other claims made in the draft document sent by Williams to Broward County officials threatening a lawsuit are that USACA is a non-profit organization which “derives its revenue in part from grants and sanction fees from cricket events”. As such, the proposed legal action argues that the “defendants’ planned cricket events are of a high commercial value and will deprive USACA of substantial revenue needed to promote cricket to its thousands of members throughout the USA,” and, furthermore, that such legal action would be in the public’s interest.”Plantiffs will also lose the credibility to conduct business with other third parties if they can cut out the sanctioning procedures of USACA, thereby causing irreparable injury and loss of substantial revenue to plaintiffs,” the proposed suit says. “Defendants are holding a sporting event for entertainment purposes for a small demographic of fans. The events if enjoined will not disserve the public interest. The members of USACA as well as the members in the Southeast Region will be more disserved if defendants are not enjoined.”However, USACA’s own legal rebuttal from Beil contradicts Williams’ view that legal action against Broward County would serve USACA positively. As of now, Williams has yet to follow through on officially filing the proposed suit in Broward County.Meanwhile, Grey has told ESPNcricinfo that Williams still has the support of the board to act as a legal liaison for USACA and Beil’s directive does not necessarily represent the majority view of the USACA board.”I am aware of [Beil’s] letter,” Grey said. “However, USACA’s lawyer was instructed to do so by Gladstone Dainty, not the board of directors. An emergency BOD [meeting] is scheduled to address this issue.”