Cricket counts the cost of Stanford crisis

[moonjee06]

The Stanford meltdown

Cricket counts the cost of Stanford crisis

The cricket world has begun to assess the impact on its finances and credibility of the fraud charges levelled against Allen Stanford. The ECB and West Indies Cricket Board, the two boards most closely associated with Stanford, have suspended negotiations with him and indicated that domestic and international tournaments sponsored by him are at risk.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint on Tuesday in a federal court in Dallas accusing Stanford, who heads the Stanford Financial Group, of fraud in the sale of around US$8 billion of high-yielding certificates of deposits held in his organisation's bank in Antigua.

The crisis will have an immediate impact on some of the future tournaments organized by both the affected boards. The Stanford 20/20 regional series in West Indies is now unlikely to be held. Asked whether the tournament would go ahead, the WICB president Julian Hunte said: "We anticipate that it will not continue (in the immediate future)."

He then sought to play down the impact on the WICB. "That is not a difficult matter for us to deal with. Either the WICB on its own or with the assistance of other entrepreneurs, will be able to get a tournament going in a way that will make it financially viable for us."

However, the cancellation of the tournament will deal a significant financial blow to the authorities involved in its organisation. Forbes Persaud, chief executive of the Trinidad and Tobago board, said the immediate financial loss as a result of the cancellation would amount to US$195,000: "Now that this has happened, it would mean that we cannot really look forward to that [money] coming to us again," Persaud told the Trinidad and Tobago Express. "I know our boys were eagerly looking forward to playing in the tournament and the fact that they have frozen all his assets, it would mean that that would be the end of the tournament."

A four-team quadrangular tournament due to take place in England, with West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand also expected to participate, is under threat. "We will clearly consider that situation but, as we have suspended all negotiations, there is a strong possibility that will now not take place," Giles Clarke, the chairman of the ECB, said.

Clarke is facing the brunt of the criticism of the ECB's proximity to Stanford, with calls for his resignation. Neil Davidson, the chairman of Leicestershire who strongly opposed Clarke during his re-election campaign, pinned the blame entirely on the ECB chairman. "In any normal organisation the chairman's position would be untenable in these circumstances," he was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. "Giles Clarke is the architect of this deal, not David Collier [the ECB chief executive]. A lot of us felt it was an error of judgement to get involved with Stanford and while we can't prejudge what will happen, those views seem to have been vindicated."

Lord Marland, the former Conservative party treasurer who failed in his bid last week to usurp Clarke as ECB chairman, echoed Davidson's views. "The ECB has walked into the open arms of a man who has now been charged with fraud. What due diligence was carried out? The picture of Giles Clarke, David Collier and Allen Stanford standing behind all those dollars will haunt English cricket for a long time. In any other organisation, heads would roll," he said.

Meanwhile, the WICB was more defensive in its reaction to the Stanford saga, refraining from "passing any judgement" and insisting that though this constituted a setback it did not threaten the existence or the functioning of the board. "I don't want to pass any judgement," Hunte told the Trinidad and Tobago Express. "I don't like to kick a man when he's down. What we know is that as we speak, his license has been suspended. To all intents and purposes, the West Indies Cricket Board is not dependent on Stanford for its financial viability.

[speedboy]

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