EXCLUSIVE: Michael Hall Quits
Fri, Jun 20, '03
Chief cricket operations officer of the West Indies Cricket Board''s (WICB) Michael Hall has quit the post to pursue job opportunities in his native Jamaica.
Hall, who was passed over for the job as team manager -- a post he coveted -- sent his resignation via e-mail to CEO Roger Brathwaite on Friday. Hall''s departure further depletes the staff at the WICB''s Antigua headquarters, which is already without a Chief Marketing Executive (CME).
He has given the WICB six weeks notice but it is likely he will negotiate a severance package and leave before that.
Hall could not be reached to comment on the reasons for his departure. It is common knowledge that the Jamaican administrator, who joined the WICB in July 2001, was alienated from decision-making procedures ever since CEO Gregory Shillingford was fired last October.
Hall, a former general manager of the Sports Development Foundation in Jamaica, was hired to replace executive secretary Andrew Sealy when that position was made redundant, but once the Pat Rousseau regime ended in controversy, he found himself on the wrong side of the new power structure.
His perfect plan was to pursue the gig as senior team manager, a role that would get him out of the WICB's Factory Road office and away from the internal politics that cost Shillingford his job. Hall, shortlisted among the finalists for that job, lost out to the incumbent Ricky Skerritt.
Insiders say the 42-year-old Hall found himself on the wrong side of the new CEO, who viewed him as a threat and a "carryover" from the disliked Pat Rousseau administration. Hall, who served in senior executive and management roles prior to landing at the WICB, was a vocal participant at Executive Committee (EC) and board meetings, often outstaging Brathwaite.
The EC, a tightly knit unit that met by conference call, was also said to be uncomfortable with Hall's new economy approach to management (he was credited with being a competitive and focused administrator) and sidelined him from its meetings in recent months.
Hall's resignation comes on the heels of the decision by president Rev. Wes Hall to step aside at next month's annual General meeting in Dominica. Wes Hall's personal assistant, Kelly Jarrett, has also left the Antigua headquarters, having been reassigned to Jamaica to join Chris Dehring's West Indies World Cup (WIWC) staff.
The WICB has not yet filled the Chief Marketing Executive (CME) vacancy, which opened up when Roger Brathwaite was handpicked to replace Shillingford. Darren Millien is now being stretched to handle responsibilities left behind by Brathwaite and Laurie-Ann Holding, who previously quit the board's marketing department.
Millien is now in charge of marketing, events, promotion and Internet Technology, including the operations of the under-utilised WindiesCricket.com Web site.
