England wait on Stanford's legal wrangles

Waiting game: skipper Kevin Pietersen

England's cricketers will know by the weekend whether their £10million match in the Caribbean has been sunk by conflicting commercial interests.

Kevin Pietersen and his team-mates, along with the England Cricket Board, can only wait while Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford and telecommunications giant Digicel are locked in tense negotiations that will determine whether the sport's richest contest goes ahead in Antigua on 1 November.

The game between England and the Stanford Superstars was thrown into serious doubt when the High Court found in favour of Digicel and against the West Indies Cricket Board.

The company had claimed that the Stanford team was the official West Indies side in all but name and, as major sponsors of cricket in the Caribbean, they were entitled to branding rights, such as their logo on the players' shirts.

Yesterday's ruling means the WICB can no longer sanction next month's game, meaning they will not receive their near £2m share of the Stanford booty. And they have been ordered to pay the costs of the case.

But, given the scale and importance of Sir Allen's involvement in West Indian cricket, it will be astonishing if a deal is not struck.

"I can't believe that two organisations which have pumped so much money into West Indies cricket will benefit in any way for this match to be called off," said veteran Caribbean cricket commentator Tony Cozier.

"For the good of the game, for the good of themselves really, they've got to come together and try to get things sorted out."

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