Cricinfo staff
March 5, 2005
West Indies cricket has been plunged into further darkness with the West Indian Cricket Board instructing selectors not to pick Brian Lara and six other senior players over the ongoing conflict regarding sponsorship contracts. Teddy Griffith, the president of the West Indies board, made the surprise announcement in a live radio and television announcement yesterday.
Lara and the other players - Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Devon Smith, Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul - have individual contracts with Cable & Wireless, the team's former sponsor, which brings them into conflict with the new sponsor, Digicel, a rival communications company. Griffith said that the board had asked the contracted players for details - excluding the financial details - of their contract to ensure that no problems arose for either the board or the players. The players declined to show their contracts.
He added that the Prime Minister of Grenada had been "assured that Cable & Wireless would do nothing in the future to display any advertisement, both in the electronic and print form, to give the impression that any relationship between itself and any of the players [both individually and collectively] in their capacity as members of the West Indies Cricket team". This faith, he implied, was betrayed when "every opportunity has been taken to use the images of the Cable and Wireless contracted players in ways which trade on their membership of the West Indies Team, refer to them as members of a team and make many references to West Indies Cricket."
Griffith said that this had put the board in an awkward position with its sponsor because it had "its ability to deliver on its commitments to Digicel. It should be noted that the Digicel sponsorship not only benefits those players who are fortunate enough to gain selection to the West Indies team but in fact contributes to every level of West Indies Cricket." Therefore, he said, the board had to take action for the betterment of West Indies cricket, as opposed to individual contracts that would favour a few players.
"The Digicel sponsorship agreement has given the Board the opportunity to substantially fund the development of cricket generally, which is its mandate," Griffith said in the statement. "For the first time, sponsorship of this nature goes beyond the international team and channels right through to the level of youth cricket, assisting the preparation of a future generation of cricketers."
But in a significant development, Cable & Wireless released a press statement underlining its commitment to the game and the concessions it was prepared to make. "...we have worked within the legal boundaries of our contracts and internationally accepted practice," the statement said, "which predates the WICB's current team sponsorship arrangement. As matters have continued to deteriorate, we are prepared to make other reasonable concessions in the best interest of West Indies cricket so that the South African and Pakistan tours to the Caribbean are neither compromised nor jeopardized ? although these compromises will significantly reduce the value of what we have."
The vice-president of marketing for Cable & Wireless also added that the company was prepared to conced more ground in the best interests of the game by limiting the number of players shown in advertisments, refraining from using the words "West Indies team" or "team" and stopping all marketing activities outside the West Indies.
Earlier, the dispute delayed the announcement of the team for the recent one-day series in Australia, and that tour was marred by internal disputes about the nature of the sponsorships, which were revealed in an explosive memo from Digicel's liaison man on the tour, Richard Nowell.
? Cricinfo
:sucks :brickwall :getyou
March 5, 2005
West Indies cricket has been plunged into further darkness with the West Indian Cricket Board instructing selectors not to pick Brian Lara and six other senior players over the ongoing conflict regarding sponsorship contracts. Teddy Griffith, the president of the West Indies board, made the surprise announcement in a live radio and television announcement yesterday.
Lara and the other players - Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Devon Smith, Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul - have individual contracts with Cable & Wireless, the team's former sponsor, which brings them into conflict with the new sponsor, Digicel, a rival communications company. Griffith said that the board had asked the contracted players for details - excluding the financial details - of their contract to ensure that no problems arose for either the board or the players. The players declined to show their contracts.
He added that the Prime Minister of Grenada had been "assured that Cable & Wireless would do nothing in the future to display any advertisement, both in the electronic and print form, to give the impression that any relationship between itself and any of the players [both individually and collectively] in their capacity as members of the West Indies Cricket team". This faith, he implied, was betrayed when "every opportunity has been taken to use the images of the Cable and Wireless contracted players in ways which trade on their membership of the West Indies Team, refer to them as members of a team and make many references to West Indies Cricket."
Griffith said that this had put the board in an awkward position with its sponsor because it had "its ability to deliver on its commitments to Digicel. It should be noted that the Digicel sponsorship not only benefits those players who are fortunate enough to gain selection to the West Indies team but in fact contributes to every level of West Indies Cricket." Therefore, he said, the board had to take action for the betterment of West Indies cricket, as opposed to individual contracts that would favour a few players.
"The Digicel sponsorship agreement has given the Board the opportunity to substantially fund the development of cricket generally, which is its mandate," Griffith said in the statement. "For the first time, sponsorship of this nature goes beyond the international team and channels right through to the level of youth cricket, assisting the preparation of a future generation of cricketers."
But in a significant development, Cable & Wireless released a press statement underlining its commitment to the game and the concessions it was prepared to make. "...we have worked within the legal boundaries of our contracts and internationally accepted practice," the statement said, "which predates the WICB's current team sponsorship arrangement. As matters have continued to deteriorate, we are prepared to make other reasonable concessions in the best interest of West Indies cricket so that the South African and Pakistan tours to the Caribbean are neither compromised nor jeopardized ? although these compromises will significantly reduce the value of what we have."
The vice-president of marketing for Cable & Wireless also added that the company was prepared to conced more ground in the best interests of the game by limiting the number of players shown in advertisments, refraining from using the words "West Indies team" or "team" and stopping all marketing activities outside the West Indies.
Earlier, the dispute delayed the announcement of the team for the recent one-day series in Australia, and that tour was marred by internal disputes about the nature of the sponsorships, which were revealed in an explosive memo from Digicel's liaison man on the tour, Richard Nowell.
? Cricinfo
:sucks :brickwall :getyou
