Three weeks of meetings between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and principal sponsors Digicel have failed to produce a resolution to the sponsorship dispute over the Stanford 20/20 for 20 All Star Game on November 1. The WICB has argued that the match involves a Stanford team and not a West Indies team, implying that Digicel doesn’t come under the picture.

Last week, Digicel issued a media release declaring that they would be pursuing a “formal dispute resolution process as provided for in the sponsorship agreement with the WICB”. This was because they argued, with reference to Allen Stanford’s proposed US$20 million winner-take-all match against an England team in Antigua, that the board had entered an agreement which “wholly compromises the exclusive rights granted to Digicel as principal sponsors of West Indies cricket”.

On Tuesday, the two parties met for what was scheduled to be the final attempt to settle the matter, but again, there was no agreement.

“We essentially agreed to continue to find a solution,” Dr Donald Peters, the WICB chief executive, told the Express. “But at this point, we’re still continuing to talk.”

However, Peters disagreed with Digicel’s interpretation of the Stanford arrangement.
“We are on different wavelengths,” he said, shortly before the latest discussions began. “Digicel says the Stanford 20/20 match (involves) a West Indies team and a West Indies match and we argue that it’s not. Everybody knows it’s Stanford’s team.

“In the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), if it was a West Indies team, Digicel would have some obligations.”

Peters explained that in such a situation, part of the contract would require that the sponsors’ commitment, including advertising rights, be met. After Tuesday’s stalemate, additional meetings between the two parties are being planned in a last-ditch attempt to stay out of court.