Stanford Super Series Set to Go Ahead

With so much money at stake, and the combined clout of both Allen Stanford and the ECB involved, it was always unlikely that the Digicel dispute would lead to the cancellation of the Super Series. Today it has been all but confirmed that the match will go ahead as planned.

The West Indies Cricket Board is currently meeting with representatives of all the concerned parties, including Digicel, in St Lucia. The WICB chief executive Dr Donald Peters stated earlier today that he expected the details of the new arrangement to be announced by the end of the day. The announcement will clear the way for the WICB to restore their official sanctioning of the event.

This morning news broke of a commercial agreement between Stanford and the Digicel boss Denis O'Brien, brokered over the phone yesterday evening. It is understood that the basis for the new agreement with Digicel will be the three-point plan proposed to Stanford by the telecommunications firm last month.

The three points of that resolution were that no other telecoms company would be involved in the event, that the Stanford organisers would pay for all their legal costs and finally that the Stanford team wear West Indies kits in the game with the Digicel brand remaining in its current form and size.

Stanford agreed to the first two points in a compromised counter-offer, with the sticking point regarding the uniform branding. That stance has now presumably changed to reflect the court verdict reached earlier this week.