NEW chief executive officer (CEO) of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), Michael Browne, is stressing “team” as he takes over the helm of the 79-year organization.
“I am meant to be part of a team. I would not want to sit here and talk about my plans for the BCA. I am working with a board as part of the secretariat to move BCA forward,” he said at a Press conference at Kensington Oval yesterday.
“It’s only been two days I’ve been here. I don’t want to presume that I can come and tell what is going to happen with the BCA.
“The core function I have is to work with the stakeholders to make sure Barbados cricket can improve and we could improve West Indies, he added.”
Browne was born and bred in St Philip, where he “played marble cricket” and where he “was part of that regime who had to roll pitches on Friday nights and Saturday mornings” at his club, King’s Park.
The 56-year-old has an impressive professional résumé, taking in work in the public service, private enterprise, and self-employment.
The Harrison College old boy worked in Government between 1973 and 1978 before relocating to England, where he spent a decade in various roles with London Transport.
Since his return to Barbados in 1988, he has worked with a number of successful businesses, most recently serving as radio producer for popular call-in programmes at Starcom Network Inc.
Browne admitted that the ultimate goal was to see the sort of success that has brought Barbados a record 20 first-class titles since 1966.
“The challenge in any team is that you need to win, and win often,” Browne said, admitting that there had been lean times of late.
“We need to go back to what we know and build on that, having players recognize the legacy and we, as the off-field team, put those structures in place to make sure we have a core of people who understand cricket, not only going on the field but, as I said, the 90 per cent in the head, in terms of moving forward.”
Browne is the third full-time CEO at the BCA, following the late Ricky Craig who served from 2003 to 2005, and Dr Roland Toppin whose tenure was between March 2007 and May 2010.
Previously, Selwyn Smith [in a consultative capacity], Wendell Kellman and Deighton Smith acted in the position.
Browne beat out 20 other candidates for the job, including insurance executive Randy Graham and former CEO of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados Inc., Rene Brathwaite, who had made the final shortlist of three.
