Windies begin search for new chief executive

Roger Brathwaite jumped - he was not pushed out - and so the West Indies Cricket Board will soon begin a worldwide search for its next chief executive officer.

This was the word from Ken Gordon, the WICB president, in a wide-ranging interview with Cable News Channel 3, following the announcement that Brathwaite will pull up stumps after four years with the WICB and declare his innings closed on April 28. Brathwaite resigned from the position last Friday after an all-day meeting of the WICB at which his job came under review, but reports indicated he had been asked to do so by Gordon.

"People resign," was the initial response Gordon gave to a question about Brathwaite's pending departure from the WICB. "Clearly, Mr Brathwaite wanted to get on with his career in a different avenue, and by mutual agreement we agreed to part.

"In a dynamic situation where things are always happening every day, there are agreements and disagreements, but you carry on. If somebody feels that they have had enough, and it's time they look for something else, you have got to understand this," Gordon added.

Brathwaite was appointed CEO of the WICB in April 2003. He first worked with the WICB as chief marketing executive in May 2002, and was installed as acting CEO in September the same year under the presidency of former West Indies fast bowling great Wes Hall, after Gregory Shillingford was asked to resign.

Gordon, however, refused to give a review of Brathwaite's performance, but disclosed that the WICB will soon roll out its advertising campaign for a new CEO, and hoped that candidates from far and wide would apply.

"We are going to put it in the hands of professional people and try to get the best possible candidates, and we will hope that what we will have presented to us from them will be a shortlist," he said. "We would hope to have the position filled by the end of the month, but it's not practical. We will hope that the ads will appear very shortly, but as you know, these things take time. They have to be done thoroughly.

"We are not talking about advertising it only in Trinidad, but we are talking about the Caribbean, and you'll have to hope that you can even get something out to places like the United States and Canada, where West Indians are living and they may want to apply, so it has to be thorough. My hope is that we can get this transition completed within three months."

Gordon also outlined the prerequisites for the new CEO, who should ideally have a background in cricket, but whose skills in a top management position are without question.

"The person has got to be an effective CEO," said Gordon, who took over as WICB president last year July after Teddy Griffith decided to not to seek re-election to the post. "A person who is a problem solver, who can lead, who takes accountability, someone who has an understanding of dealing with the whole picture.

"Some people are very good at pockets of these things, but a CEO is someone who first recognises the resources available to him, and the limitations in which he has to work, and then devises a plan to achieve results. This is the single-most important thing by which a CEO should live - a creed of delivering results - and that's the kind of person we are looking for - someone who will deliver results."

Until then, the affairs of the WICB will be controlled by the remainder of the management personnel under the eye of Gordon, who will meet weekly with them to review the status of various issues.

"You have people who are there, you have staff, and you have the chief financial officer, Barry Thomas, who is a very competent man," he said. "I will be going to Antigua on Mondays to meet with the managers, so that you have a managers' meeting the same way that you have in most companies, and have a good idea about what is being tackled and I will have various inputs into it.

"So for the next few months, until we have a new person in place, it will put a little more pressure on me in terms of having to go up there on a weekly basis to ensure that's done," Gordon said.