By Neto Baptiste
Former vice president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Clarvis Joseph said he has no regrets over his decision to resign from the organisation back in 2001 after the sacking of then manager Ricky Skerritt.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Joseph said he felt that the board, at the time, deliberately set out to undermine the authority of then CEO, Gregory Shillingford.
“Well, Clarvis Joseph felt that if you allowed that to get through, you will forever allow a board to undermine the authority of a chief executive officer and micromanage the corporation — to the detriment of the board — by elevating the board and the government above the administrative functions they should perform, given the structure of the organisation,” he said.
Joseph and then president Pat Rousseau, resigned in June of 2001. The pair came under fire over the way team manager Skerritt was fired. It was alleged that Rousseau and Joseph fired Skerritt without the approval of the rest of the five-member executive committee, who opposed the move based on not having all the facts.
At a meeting shortly after, the representatives of the six territories, along with Rousseau and Shillingford, took a vote and in a 10-4 result, voted to re-instate Skerritt, which led to the resignations.
“On that basis, Clarvis Joseph decided that if that was the way they were going to go, the voluntary [work] ceased at that point in time; goodbye. I will take nonsense if you’re paying me but if I am volunteering my time, then sorry,” he said.
Joseph was also a member of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association, and was also chairman of the Antigua Public Utilities Authority Board