Stanford Twenty20 to go ahead

11:13pm Thursday 9th October 2008

The multi-million dollar Stanford Twenty20 match will go ahead as planned, tournament organisers have confirmed.

Agreement has now been reached between match organisers Stanford and telecommunications company Digicel.

A statement read: "Stanford 20/20 confirmed that the schedule for the Stanford Super Series and Stanford 20/20 for 20 will proceed as planned starting October 25, 2008."

The statement continued: "Following the recent findings of the arbitrator in the dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and Digicel, Stanford 20/20 and Digicel held a series of extremely productive discussions during which they each committed to achieve a successful outcome for both their organisations and, most importantly, cricket in the West Indies.

"An agreement between Stanford 20/20 and Digicel has now been reached which assures the future of the Stanford Super Series and the Stanford 20/20 for 20."

The West Indies Cricket Board scheduled a meeting in St Lucia where it was expected the governing body's directors would ratify an agreement to allow the winner-takes-all $20 million (£11.6million) match to go ahead.

That meeting has proved fruitful as the dispute which had put the series in jeopardy was finally resolved.

Sir Allen Stanford said: "I am pleased with both parties' solution oriented approach and most importantly that this matter has been finally resolved.

"We look forward to welcoming fans from around the world to the Stanford Cricket Ground to enjoy a fantastic week of cricket."

Reports earlier on Thursday suggested a "commercial agreement" had been reached after a trans-Atlantic telephone conversation between Sir Allen Stanford and Digicel boss Denis O'Brien, which has now been confirmed and the WICB have been able to give the game their sanction.

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