Hello Dolly!

Stanford rejects Digicel contract offer

Cricinfo staff

September 20, 2008

The row between the West Indies Cricket Board and its major sponsors, Digicel, rumbles on after demands made by Digicel in relation to the forthcoming Stanford 20/20 for 20 were rejected by the Stanford organisers.

The board has been at loggerheads with Digicel regarding branding for the Stanford tournament for some time, culminating in Digicel taking out injunctions at London's High Court.

Digicel proposed a three-point compromise to the WICB earlier this month, and on Thursday Stanford officials sent back a counter-offer stating that they would not do any deals with Digicel's competitors, would pay all Digicel's costs, and would give the company some branding rights at the 2008 event.

However, the latter point was rejected out of hand, with Digicel maintaining that it wanted the same branding on Stanford Superstars shirts as it has on the full West Indies shirts for the next five years.

The main disagreement comes over the status of the tournament. Digicel maintains it is an official WICB event with a representative national team, and as such, under the terms of its contract with the WICB, that would give it full branding rights. Stanford insists that it is an unofficial team and, as such, is outside any existing WICB-Digicel agreement.

"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," a Stanford spokesman said, accusing the telecommunications giant of continuing "to insist on receiving commercial rights to the Stanford Super Series which are way in excess of its contractual entitlements".

This is how we do contrite

Not a damaging loss

It must take something special to be the first Indian team to lose the Md Nissar Trophy (that too, at home) and not offer one word of apology for the people who followed your fortunes.

Kudos Mr Chopra, you have been coached well.

Music to Ranatunga's ears

"It's a message that the game is not ruled by any single body, and nobody should try to rule the game."

The wrong fight

Duleep Mendis, the chief executive of SLC, told Cricinfo the board's interim committee took this decision at a meeting following a request from the cricketers. "The interim committee has allowed these ICL players to play in domestic cricket after they sought permission to do so. This decision refers to a specific application from a specific group of players to take part in domestic cricket," Mendis said. He refused to comment on whether similar waivers would be granted in future to cricketers who take part in subsequent editions of ICL -- the league's second season starts on October 10.

"Players will be allowed to play for their respective clubs and share their expertise, but cannot represent the country," Shane Fernando, the Sri Lanka Cricket media manager, told AFP.

Interesting choice of words by Duleep Mendis... Not a blanket amnesty for ICL affiliated players but just enough to pique the BCCI..

But, if as has been widely reported in the media subsequent to this development, that this is the first step in the SLC standing up to the BCCI, I believe the SLC has picked the wrong fight..

Not because they are taking on the BCCI, but because the cause itself is self defeating.

The SLC, like the BCCI, is a monopoly. And like all monopolies, it will walk the extra mile to preserve status quo.

Granting an one off pardon to a set of players is one thing, making it de jure, quite another. Because, just as easily as the ICL was formed, an alternate cricket structure can take shape in Sri Lanka.

One that will act as a magnet for disgruntled players.

And once that happens, the next time someone says 'Selectors are muppets headed by a joker', the SLC will be able to do exactly nothing.

The great Fall blockbuster

not the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but this

I concur

AR: Now to the question that you have picked as the best one that has come in for you this week. Sandip from the United States wants to know: should MS Dhoni be made India's Test captain? He says that Anil Kumble has been captain of the Test side for a few months now and Dhoni has been the captain for the one-dayers and Twenty20 matches for a similar amount of time. It is very evident that Dhoni has matured tremendously in a short span of time. Is the time ripe now for the Indian selectors to politely replace Kumble with Dhoni as captain of the Indian Test team for the upcoming series against Australia?

GB: My answer to that is simple: no. There has never been a wicketkeeper-batsman who has been a successful captain in Test cricket over a period of time. Occasionally a wicketkeeper has captained an odd Test match. But to do everything, like dealing with the press, wicketkeeping, and batting day after day, match after match is too difficult.

Let me explain to you: stand in front of the mirror, go down on your haunches and come back again. That is what the wicketkeeper does, for 90 overs a day, for 540 balls, plus the throwing and the extras, and so you go up and down about 600 times a day. Most of you will be lucky if you can do that 50 times in front of the mirror. It is very tiring. On top of that, you have the mental situation of having to work out in your head between balls who is going to bowl, what will be the field positions, and still catch the ball if it comes to you.

What has happened in the past when wicketkeepers were captains is that they were concentrating too much on where the fielders should be and who is going to bowl next and so they started dropping catches. I have great respect for Dhoni and I think he has done a wonderful job in one-day cricket. He probably could captain in Tests too but it's just that his position as wicketkeeper makes it all difficult when you add it together.

In one-day cricket, you only have 20 overs or 50 overs to keep wickets - three and a half hours at most to keep wickets. Then he gets a couple of days off. In Test cricket there are no days off. It lasts for five days solid. You have done one innings and then you have to do a second innings. Then you probably get three days off before another Test match because administrators are shoving Test cricket and one-day cricket in as much as they can. Now on top of that, they are shoving in as much Twenty20 cricket as they can. So it is going to get very difficult. It is not that Dhoni can't do it mentally; it is not that he isn't up to the challenge. I think he is, he is very knowledgeable, but it is his position as wicketkeeper that makes it very difficult to encompass captaincy and keeping wickets well.

Clutching at straws...

AUSTRALIA'S hopes of inflicting early pain on India in the Border-Gavaskar series were given a major boost, with the first Test expected to be played on an upgraded fast and bouncy pitch.

News flash, Jon - Bangalore is home to Anil Kumble, captain of the Indian Test Cricket team. And Anil Kumble is a spinner. And unlike Nagpur in 2004 where Shashank Manohar was opposed to the then BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, the KSCA is completely on side with Sharad Pawar..

So, expect a wicket with bounce, because that will bring our spinners to play.. But dont rule out a turner, because we are going to play up our strengths and highlight your weaknesses, not vice versa.

Thank you Delhi...

Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited 266 (Shehzad 66, Umar Akmal 58) beat Delhi 134 (Kohli 52, Imran Ali 6-52) and 516 for 4 (Chopra 182, Kohli 197) on first-innings lead

The two previous editions of the Mohammad Nissar Trophy, instituted in 2006, had been won by Indian teams - Uttar Pradesh in 2006 and Mumbai in 2007.

You spineless bastards!