The Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) is arguably the most high-profile sporting organisation in the island.
It has a rich history of strong, vibrant leadership and it can be justifiably proud of its sound administrative structure, solid financial position, Barbados’ dominant performances in regional competitions and its well organised club set-up.
At the same time, however, it has not escaped controversy, the latest of which is the major embarrassment of the revelation that its new chief executive officer Jefferson Miller had been convicted for grand theft in the United States in May and sentenced to two years’ community service to be followed by ten years’ probation.
The BCA has thus been reduced to a laughing stock.
It took the association more than a year to appoint a new chief executive officer, but this fiasco raises serious questions over whether the necessary due diligence was carried out before recruiting Mr Miller. One has to wonder if the BCA asked him to produce a police certificate of character or whether he provided credible references to accompany his application.
While it is debatable if Mr Miller had a responsibility to inform the BCA about his legal troubles before he was appointed, the local governing body must take the blame for failing to complete the necessary checks before penciling him in for the job.
The BCA’s board of management and its human resources committee include several experienced personnel with a vast range of skills and expertise but they must all hold their heads in shame over this debacle that has tarnished the image of the association.
We commend the BCA for urgently addressing the matter. It wasted no time in discussing the issue at a board meeting last Monday when we understand things became quite heated. We are, however, alarmed that it is yet to make a public utterance more than a week after the revelations came to light.
We are told that the BCA’s legal representative met with Mr Miller and his attorney two days after the board of management had their deliberations and even in the face of Press reports elsewhere that the chief executive officer had been dismissed, those who run the association have remained mum on the issue.
This deafening silence is unacceptable. By now, the BCA should have said something to its 2 000 members and the wider public, even if it was merely to note it was concerned by the reports of Mr Miller’s conviction.
We cannot just assume that Mr Miller is no longer in the job just because the BCA vehicle assigned to the chief executive officer has returned to Kensington Oval without a sighting of Mr Miller.
The BCA’s board of management has failed its members, the entire cricket fraternity and the country as a whole. We stop short of requesting that the president and the entire board step down but we are demanding that the BCA make a full disclosure over the recruitment process for Mr Miller and offer the country an apology for the embarrassment it has caused.
