Cover Points : Allen Stanford

Digicel's business nose in Stanford's millions

dcsiva — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:40:00 GMT

Will the Stanford 20/20 even be played? Mike Selvey put it as pithily as ever a while ago:

I don't know whether the cricketers of England or West Indies are in the habit of perusing the website of the London high court for its daily list of causes, but they might do so for September 18, when an injunction is due to be brought by Digicel against the West Indies Cricket Board. If it goes unresolved, all bets could be off, at least in the short term.

The issue seems quite straight forward. Digicel, the Irish telecoms provider and main sponsor of the West Indies until 2012, has taken umbrage that its business rival in the Caribbean, Cable & Wireless, a former sponsor of the WICB, is believed to be climbing on board the good ship Stanford to sponsor the Super Series for its five years. "We have an exclusive deal with WICB," says Digicel. "Not with us though," is the Stanford rejoiner. And so Digicel and WICB will repair to the high court.

First, Digicel put in a compromise offer (i.e. everything they wanted), then Stanford made a counter-offer—basically everything Digicel wanted except putting their logo on the Stanford players' shirts, which Digicel promptly declined. And now the media battle is heating up.The High Court injunction kicks in on October 3rd.

Lovely. But it won't matter to these two cricket players at least.

Meanwhile, back on planet cricket, Darren Gough is retiring: King Cricket's Darren Gough tribute.

ICL = International Cricket League?

dcsiva — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:49:00 GMT

Arjuna Ranatunga the administrator is carrying on the mysterious ways he developed as captain. I can't begin to imagine what has possessed the man, especially given that SL's current players are still agitating for playing in the IPL next year, not touring England. Good luck to him anyway!

Having predicted the creation of a Sri Lanka team in the ICL, which looks one giant step closer to happening now, Soulberry is now thinking ICL tie-ups with Stanford:

ICL comes that much closer to recognition/acceptance and a possible tie-up with Stanford at some point in the future may not be a pipe-dream anymore.

SL has solved the problem of keeping its players well-paid and happy with one stroke. Others are sure to follow.

Jrod puts it in the way only he could:

But say what you will, it takes a fair man to stick his middle digit up at a millionaire kidnapper.

Would you?

I cannot believe me and Arjuna agree on anything.

If Arjuna had a blog, oh the angry comments he would get.

That would teach him for this anti establishment behaviour.

Finally, Kartikeya gives us a run-down on the Irani Trophy, both review and preview.

A billion here, a billion there

dcsiva — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:57:00 GMT

Andy Bull interviewed Allen Stanford and lived to tell a tale about intimidation and money...40 odd billion of it:

With money and power come natural charisma. Stanford commands through more than just his cash. He has presence, the kind that stops the pianist on a heavy chord when he comes into the room. He is, for one thing, big. Bigger than Viv. His handshake crushes rocks and his voice makes your guts tremble. Interviewing him, I didn't so much ask him questions as simply listen to him speak. He was intimidating and evangelical, a mix I've since seen in Nigel Benn after he took up preaching. Stanford isn't just buying people, he's selling to them. The man has serious plans and, after an hour in his company, I was sold.

Stanford Financial is worth around $43bn (£21bn). "The key players, Giles Clarke and David Collier, waited at the foot of the steps in obeisance, their hair buffeted by the helicopter's blades," wrote Atherton of Stanford's arrival at Lord's. It's a cute turn of phrase, but what else was he expecting? Something like that scene in 300 where King Leonidas shouts "This is Sparta!" and pushes the messenger into the bottomless pit?

Looks like Peter Moores and the selectors are beginning to feel the pressure of all that money:

Competition for places is expected to be intense, along with the pressure on the selectors who will decide the final squad.
But Moores said only merit will guarantee a player their flight to Antigua.
"The fact that it's worth more money doesn't matter, you still use the same judgement to pick the side," said Moores.

Meanwhile, here's a wonderfully thoughtful piece by Mukul Kesavan on the BCCI's Stalinist tendencies regarding ICL players and officials.

Team spirits and beers

dcsiva — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:36:00 GMT

Homer reports that England's players are not happy about playing in a winner-takes-all care of Stanford. From the Daily Mail article Homer links to:

The players are keen to take part in the annual big-money match at Stanford's private ground in Antigua, and an annual quadrangular tournament in England, featuring the hosts, the All-Star XI and two other international sides, initially from Pakistan, Sri Lanka or New Zealand. But the prospect of winning — or losing — such an enormous sum of money as £10m, perhaps on the misfortune of a dropped catch or the outcome of the last ball of the game, has proved too much.

Why? They fear that it will effect team cohesiveness. In a similar move, much to Miss Field's consternation, the Aussies went so far as to wear VB caps so that poor old baggy green-less Brad Haddin wouldn't feel left out during a tour game:

Former Australian player Greg Matthews has told News Limited publications that he would never have abandoned the traditional baggy green cap in favour of a sponsors cap.
"Money talks," Matthews said. "You're selling your pride, selling the baggy green. It just cheapens things.
"If someone said to me I had to wear a VB hat, I'd tell them to piss off," he continued emotionally.
Cricket Australia's public affairs manager, Philip Pope, said that the decision was made for the sake of uniformity, with commercial considerations not coming into it.

Anyone want to ask Vijay Mallya about team cohesiveness? Finally, Ottayan lists the terms of the IPL contracts and argues that they're loaded in favour of the players.

In a rich man's world

dcsiva — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:55:00 GMT

A report has come out from Frontier Economics, a consultancy firm, offering up a regression on performance stats and IPL auction values. Batsmen are undervalued, for example.

Homer digs deep into the money question, quoting from Indranil Basu's article on IPL revenue models and an interview with some of the key money-bag men of IPL cricket. Meanwhile, The Atheist clearly has strong feelings about Allen Stanford getting involved with English cricket:

Anyway, this state or anger was topped today when I discovered that Allen “Call Me Sir” Stanford is planning to bank-roll an expanded English twenty20 competition to rival the IPL. Why we would want to do such a thing is unclear, but Stanford is only prepared to organise such a useless tournament if he receives assurances from the ECB that they’ll guarantee his investment plus returns.

What marks batsmen as truly great? The best opposition concoct plans to dismiss them. And have to change them again and again as they adjust to one another:

"He is in the same league as Lara, but I've always felt Sachin has a tighter technique. Because he's so solid, our bowlers have had to work hard to get him out," said Ponting.
"At different times, we've worked out different plans, but Sachin comes up with something to combat them ... the sign of a truly class player."