Embattled chief executive officer of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), Jefferson Miller, still has a job, for now.
Informed sources have told the MIDWEEK NATION that the BCA has forwarded Miller’s matter to their attorney, Patterson Cheltenham, QC, for consideration and legal direction.
Rumours were rife yesterday that Miller had been fired, but when contacted last night, Cheltenham revealed that he would be meeting with Miller and his legal representative Junior Alsopp in a special consultation at Charlton House on Whitepark Road today.
“I met with my client, which is the BCA, today and a decision was made to meet with Mr Miller and his lawyer tomorrow,” Cheltenham noted. But the attorney said he was in no position to confirm if Miller had been given his walking papers.
It was only last weekend that details emerged about Miller’s conviction in June in a Miami, Florida courtroom for grand larceny in a case which dated back to 2009. He was placed on a 12-year probation after being found guilty.
Miller, a 55-year-old Barbadian who lived in the United States for 37 years, was appointed as the BCA’s CEO last month, a job with a $10 000 monthly salary and numerous perks, to run the country’s largest sporting organisation.
Several attempts yesterday to reach him for a comment proved futile.
When the MIDWEEK NATION contacted BCA president Joel Garner yesterday, he had little to offer.
Garner, a former West Indies fast bowler, would not confirm if Miller had been fired either. “There is nothing I can confirm now. I would have to get back to you later but I can’t say anything about that right now,” he said at the time.
BCA cricket operations manager Rollins Howard couldn’t shed any more light on the matter. “Any decision to fire anyone is one above my head. That would have to come from the board,” he said when contacted yesterday just after 5 p.m.
The BCA’s executive board held a long, loud and contentious meeting on Monday night at Kensington Oval that ended at almost 1 a.m. yesterday. “The board made a decision, but referred the matter to its attorney for legal direction,” an informed source revealed afterward.
Miller was not present for Monday’s meeting, and the car park space reserved for the CEO was conspicuously empty.
A visibly upset Calvin Hope, who had twice contested Garner for presidency of the BCA, in 2007 and 2011, actually left that meeting early.
He came out just before 10 p.m. and said he was “tired” but when pressed by reporters, he said he would not be making any comment on Miller’s hiring or possible firing.
A board member, who requested anonymity, told the MIDWEEK NATION that the major concern at the meeting related to due diligence in Miller’s hiring.
“This whole matter was very embarrassing for the board, and that was the main problem. This is the Barbados Cricket Association, looking bad in the face of the entire world,” the board member bemoaned.
“This is easily the most embarrassing day in the history of the BCA,” that peeved board member added.
“The issue has now left the BCA with some lessons to learn from with respect to due diligence. It was a very rigid and difficult meeting.”
