ST JOHN’S (Antigua), Sept 22: The world’s richest cricket match the 20-million dollar Stanford Super Series clash here on November 1, may be abandoned without a ball being bowled because of a commercial row.

The Stanford organisers and Digicel, the multi-million dollar sponsors of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), are locked in a row over commercial rights at the match being played at the Stanford Cricket Ground.

Digicel believes its five-year deal with the WICB includes the match, which features the Stanford Superstars taking on Kevin Pietersen’s England, as it is officially backed by the board; the Stanford organisers claim as the Superstars are not an official side it is outside any existing sponsorship deal.

“The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have confirmed that they do not consider the Stanford Superstars team to be a West Indies team,” said a Stanford statement.

“The Superstars team is selected solely by Stanford 20/20 and Stanford 20/20 is not willing to gift to Digicel valuable rights to which it is simply not entitled and which Stanford 20/20 intends to sell as part of a presenting sponsor package for the Stanford Super Series.”

The proposed Twenty20 match, where each member of the winning team is set to win a million dollars, has already been the subject of legal action at London’s High Court, where an arbitration hearing is set to take place early next month.

This latest commercial fall-out comes just days after claims that two players from the squad created by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford, including a West Indies batsman, had failed drugs tests.

West Indies Cricket Board chief executive Donald Peters has objected to media reports linking him to confirmation of the alleged positive tests.—AFP