Stanford won’t ditch English cricket yet: Reports

“Sir Allen Stanford last night insisted that he is not going to withdraw from his multimillion-pound investment in English cricket,” said the report.

“The billionaire is conducting a full review of his involvement with the sport but he said its focus will be on the future of his work in the West Indies and will not affect his commitments with the England and Wales Cricket Board,” it said.

The ECB was stunned by yesterday’s announcement of the pull-out, but its Chairman Giles Clarke, currently in Mohali for the second and final Test against India, had said the quadrangular international series at Lord’s next summer, for which the Texan is a principal sponsor, will go ahead.

The ECB will release the long-delayed 2009 fixture list, which will include a Lord’s tournament involving England, a Stanford All Stars team, and two sides from Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan, the paper said.

Stanford’s review of his programme is focused on the contractual issues with the West Indies Cricket Board that seems to bear the brunt of his discontent.

Its principal sponsor, Digicel, was unhappy about its partial exclusion from the branding of the Stanford Super Stars team who beat England in the recent 20/20 for 20 final in Antigua.

On October 10 the London high court settled a protracted wrangle in favour of Digicel, which claimed that the WICB was in breach of contract because they had ratified the Super Stars side.

Stanford was forced to concede marketing space for Digicel on the team shirt, or risk calling off the tournament. Meanwhile, Clarke had come in for fierce criticism from the Hampshire Chairman Rod Brasnsgrove over the deals with Stanford.

“This leaves the ECB very exposed. They have put all their eggs in one basket, lost us our place at the top table and alienated the world game by backing one horse,” he said.

“If you make flaky deals with flaky people, you must expect a flaky outcome. When you flirt with someone with this kind of background, it is inevitable that he could pull out at any time and, even if it doesn’t happen now, it could just as easily happen in a year’s time. Stanford is an entrepreneur and this is what entrepreneurs do,” said Bransgrove.