WICB gets new operations officer

ST JOHN’S: Over the past year-and-a-half, former chief cricket operations officer of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Michael Hall spent a lot of time pleading — unsuccessfully — for an assistant to share the workload.

On Friday, as Hall was boarding a flight to travel back to his native Jamaica to take up a job as the new manager of a restructured National Stadium Authority, the WICB announced it had hired CricInfo correspondent Derrick Nicholas to be Cricket Operations Officer (Regional). Ironically, it was the departing Michael Hall who interviewed five candidates for the newly-created post and recommended Nicholas for the job. Strangely, the WICB is in the midst of advertising for Hall’s replacement, prompting questions as to why an assistant would be hired before the person he would be working under.  Even more strange is that Michael Hall would be the person tasked with interviewing and recommending a candidate after resigning in late June.

Now, the WICB has placed itself in an uncomfortable position of having to hire a new Chief Cricket Operations Officer and not allowing him a chance to approve of his assistant. In most professional sporting organisations, this is regarded as “cart-before-the-horse” planning. It is rare that general managers in pro-sports franchises get hired for a job after new staff members are picked. The board said it had started a “regional recruitment drive” to find a replacement for Hall but made it clear the advertisements were only being placed on the WindiesCricket.com Web site. WICB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Roger Brathwaite, who was himself handpicked for the job by the Executive Committee without it being advertised (the WICB’s decision to advertise the post was ignored), is also in the midst of recruiting a new Chief Marketing Executive. Marketing Manager Events, Promotion & IT Darren Millien is expected to apply for that job. The WICB also confirmed it would be advertisIng for the positions of Assistant Coach and physiotherapist of the senior West Indies team.