October 08, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 08, 1429

LONDON, Oct 7: Plans to stage the world’s richest cricket match in Antigua next month were thrown into disarray on Tuesday when the West Indies Cricket Board lost a dispute with sponsors Digicel in London’s High Court.

As a result of the defeat, the WICB was been told it will have to withdraw its sanction for the $20-millionr Twenty20 match between the Stanford Superstars XI and England on Nov 1.

That could mean that either the match will have to be called off or that the Stanford Superstars side will be weakened by the withdrawal of most of the leading West Indian players.

The WICB had previously agreed to make all their players available to play for Texas billionaire Allen Stanford’s select side.

But Digicel went to the High Court in a bid to establish that, as the contracted official sponsor of the WICB until 2012, it enjoyed commercial rights associated with a game that was, in effect, a West Indies XI v England.

The High Court upheld that argument and ruled that the Board would be in breach of its contract with Digicel if it sanctioned the match without granting commercial rights to its sponsor. The WICB was also ordered to pay costs.

WICB chief executive Dr Donald Peters confirmed the court defeat.

“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,” Peters said.—AFP