The 900lb gorilla in the room

had nothing to do with this..

The West Indies Cricket Board has lost its case with telecommunications company Digicel in London's High Court and has been forced to withdraw its sanction for the Stanford 20/20 for 20 match on November 1.

The decision makes it possible that the game is called off or, if it does proceed, that the Stanford Superstars side will be greatly weakened. Sources close to the organisers were quick to insist that the match was still on.

The WICB entered into a contract with Stanford to make all their players available for the event, but it cannot now do so. If anything like a full-strength side takes the field against England Digicel could claim that it is a representative team in all but name, which would again put the WICB in breach of its contract with them.

Digicel's case against the board claimed that if the Stanford match was officially recognised then, as official sponsor to the WICB, it had branding and other commercial rights associated with that deal.

However, the court ruled that the WICB had to remove its sanction for the game as not doing so would put it in breach of contract with Digicel. It is understood that costs running into hundreds of thousands of dollars were also awarded against the board, and it might also lose the US$3.5 million in fees it was in line for from the game itself. As this was an arbitration, there is no recourse for the WICB to appeal.