"Man with many hats" - MCA's Executive Secretary

While having lunch today I was next to a table of cricket personalities who were discussing the Executive Secretary of the MCA. I understand that the discussion came into being due to recent articles in the blog regarding cricket.

Most of them were sympathetic to the Executive Secretary as he is a newcomer to the MCA administration. Although, he may have been Malaysian cricket's National Captain previously, it is difficult to get into an environment where a number of staff and officials have already entrenched themselves. Therefore it requires time and careful handling combined with good interpersonal skills to get these people behind him. Apparently, the Executive Secretary in his haste to get things "cracking" had stepped on the toes of some of these people and life for him has become a bit intolerable. This has become stressful to him and his temperature gets built up when accused of shouting down at the staff.

Behind the back, scenes in the form of gossip creativity, back-stabbing and whisper campaigns have started to tarnish his image. Everything he does is magnified many times over to search for the slightest fault. In this way it has become so difficult for him to survive and he may not come through his probation with flying colours.

I had to finish my lunch and did not know if there was any conclusion to the topic. What i heard disturbed me. Am I also one of the many who seem to be "gunning" the Executive Secretary, without realising what is happening in MCA? I had to give careful thought to the matter and determine whether I had been fair to him.

Part of the problem rests with the fact that the MCA want their Executive Secretary to wear too many hats. A paid staff cum National Team Manager and cum National Selector. Is that not asking too much from one person who had just been there for a few months? What is shocking is that these appointments have come while he is still on probation as an Executive Secretary. Therefore for confirmation would the basis of judgement at the end of his probation be solely the Executive Secretary or in all 3 position?

Whilst that may be an issue, however there are other more fundamental matters to be considered. Furthermore the multiple positions can conflict with each other in terms of scope, thus creating an unwanted situation. An example of this is last Sunday's game where the National players and National coach refused to have the National umpires continue officiating the match. In that instance, the Executive Secretary seemed to side with the team and the coach. His rationale behind this was to ensure there is no further trouble. It may seemed to have been a perfectly sound decision, but as the Executive Secretary he should have ensured that rules of cricket and the decorum of cricket is fulfilled i.e. do not allow the Umpires to be bullied and the game brought into disrepute. The matter gets even more convoluted when including his role as National Selector. Being aware of what the various players have done, should he as a Selector permit them to be selected to represent the nation?

These are the conflicts that he has to face daily. Nobody in the right mind should put the Executive Secretary in the position of going through this torturous conflicts. It is only going to add to his stress level and make the other staff face the consequences of it. It is only fair the Executive Secretary be allowed to undertake his primary role so as he is totally fluent with it. Please do not allow him to be buried with conflicting issues that will only encourage more criticism.