Directors of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are this morning considering the ramifiactions of yesterday’s judgement of the London Court of International Arbitration (LICA) in favour of its main sponsor, Digicel, that has thrown into doubt its officially approved, US$20 million match between the Stanford Superstars and England, scheduled in Antigua on November 1.
Chief executive Donald Peters, who represented the WICB at the case in London, revealed yesterday that the issue would be discussed at a board meeting in St.Lucia on Thursday after which a statement would be released.
“At this point we are trying to evaluate what the terms of the ruling are,” he said.
Whatever else, it is certain to face steep legal costs that it can hardly afford.
There was no immediate comment from Digicel or Stanford but reliable information is that they are in urgent negotiations in an effort to come to a “commercial arrangement” that would allow the match to go ahead.
The court upheld the claim of Digicel, the Caribbean-wide, Irish telecommunications company, that the WICB’s sanctioning of the match “wholly compromises the exclusive rights granted to Digicel as principal sponsors of West Indies cricket”.
Under the ruling, the WICB would have to withdraw its endorsement that was necessary for it to be recognised as official by the England and Wales County Board (ECB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
In that case, it would be considered a private, unauthorised venture, the same as the Indian Cricket League (ICL) whose players have been banned from domestic and international cricket by several ICC members.
In other words, unless Stanford and Digicel can come to some amicable settlement that would allow the WICB to retain its official approval, the entire Super Series of six matches, one of which is for a US$400,000 purse between the regional Stanford 20/20 champions, Trinidad & Tobago, and the England Twenty20 Cup winners, Middlesex, would be off.
Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire who has based part of his global financial empire in Antigua for the past quarter-century, announced the agreement with the WICB and the England and Wales County Board (WICB) to stage the US$20 million match annually over the next five years at Lord’s on June 11.
Digicel responded by noting that the Superstars team was a West Indies team in everything but name and covered by its sponsorship agreement. The WICB and Stanford disagreed, stating that the selectors, the managers and coaches were different.
Digicel initially took out an injunction in the London High Court against the match before the issue went to the LICA.
There were strongly-worded, public exchanges between Digicel and Stanford but both are so heavily committed to the Caribbean, commercially quite apart from cricket, that they are unlikely to allow such a major event to collapse.
Digicel stated earlier that it “always supported the proposed Stanford 20/20 initiative and have, at all times, sought to proactively engage with the parties concerned with a view towards resolving the present dispute on an amicable and responsible basis”.
Stanford put forward three compromises but refused to budge on Digicel’s insistence that their brand name should appear on the Superstars uniforms.
A solution seems possible and, for the good of all parties, necessary.
For its part, the WICB, having created the problem, now finds itself a virtually irrelevant bystander with the fate of the richest match in cricket history in the hands of an Irish telecommunications company, and a Texan billionaire.
