Stanford showdown in doubt

Eurosport - Wed, 08 Oct 16:19:00 2008

England's Twenty20 clash against a Stanford Super Stars XI remains under threat after legal wrangles affecting the event continued on Tuesday.

CRICKET; allen Stanford, June 2008 - 0

The planned match is due to be played on November 1, with around £500,000 per player up for grabs for the victorious team.

However the West Indies Cricket Board may be forced to withdraw their sanction for the match following their arbitration case with telecommunications company Digicel in London's High Court.

Digicel took legal action ahead of the match between the Stanford Super Stars XI and England, claiming they had branding rights because of their overall sponsorship with the WICB.

The WICB believe they have lost the case against Digicel and expect to be forced to remove their sanction for the game or face being in breach of their contract with Digicel.

If the match is no longer to be sanctioned by the WICB, that could result in senior West Indies players being prevented from playing in the match, thus denying it much of its appeal and credibility.

WICB chief executive Dr Donald Peters said: "We understand the arbitrator has ruled against the West Indies Cricket Board and at this point we are trying to evaluate what the terms of the ruling are before we make any statement."

There may still be further efforts at finding a way around the differences between the WICB and Digicel, which could also involve match organiser Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire.

The root of the dispute has been the claim by Digicel that they have branding rights for the game under the terms of their sponsorship contract with the WICB, which they extended until 2012 in July.

Digicel's stance has caused issue with the match organisers, Stanford 20/20, who would rather find their own sponsors for the match.

Stanford 20/20 stress the match is not an official West Indies fixture, and have claimed Digicel's deal should not apply.

Reuters

Comment 1 - 10 of 10

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  1. As is the usual way when the lawyers and barristers get­ involved, they rake the money in by the skip load,­ sanity and common sense are flung from the arena­ further than a Chris Gayle six and everyone else loses.­ Explains a lot really when we consider the hierarchy of­ the ICC is top heavy with lawyers. Remember all the­ nasty little wrangles over marketing rights at the last­ couple world cups and people being chucked out of­ grounds for inappropriate t-shirts etc...? We had empty­ grounds in the WI for the last world cup and now it­ appears they will be devoid of players also...

    From nocohere, on Wed 8 Oct 11:28AM

  2. Stanford is not going to put up that kind of money if­ there's nothing in it for him so he must be going­ to benefit. But there is no reason to think that this­ is a winner takes all scenario behind the scenes even­ though it is on the field of play.

    It gives good­ exposure to 20:20 cricket and to WI cricket and also to­ the WI. If it also encourages 20-30% of the youngsters­ who are choosing football over cricket to change their­ minds then this will be a huge benefit to WI cricket­ who have shown signs of a lack of depth for some years­ now.

    I can't see any reason why both can benefit­ from this tournament.

    From Bertie, on Wed 8 Oct 8:55AM

  3. who does this 20 20 cricket tourney benefit? stanford­ or wi cricket.and if your answer is the latter tell me­ how?

    From darlove, on Tue 7 Oct 8:38PM

  4. what now for those members of the england set-up, and­ others, who miraculously recovered and enthusiasm for­ one day cricket after retiring!

    From deejay, on Tue 7 Oct 8:26PM

  5. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!! Well done­ Digicel.

    The double edge sword of sponsorship bites­ back but seriously unless Digicel can come to some­ "arrangement" to allow this game to be played­ they are going to lose a lot. Every time anyone sees­ their name on a cricket pitch this is what will come to­ mind.

    Shame on you!

    From Bertie, on Tue 7 Oct 7:26PM

  6. I like it good on you Digi

    From management, on Tue 7 Oct 5:49PM

  7. Digicel are sponsoring the team for good PR. They­ prevent this game and everyone hates them. Why bother­ with the sponsorship in the first place?

    From david h, on Tue 7 Oct 3:39PM

  8. effing Digicel, continuing to screw up Windies­ Cricket...

    From lazytrini, on Tue 7 Oct 3:16PM

  9. Digicel should change it name to Greedicel!

    From fwh69, on Tue 7 Oct 3:07PM

  10. when greed gets into cricket look at the results

    From Anne, on Tue 7 Oct 2:55PM
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