PM Owen slams cricket colleagues

GEORGETOWN: Barbados’ prime minister said some Caribbean leaders have overstepped their bounds by allegedly trying to impose their views on cricket officials in a sponsorship dispute between two telecommunications companies. The West Indies Cricket Board earlier this month ruled that seven star players, including captain Brian Lara, were ineligible for an upcoming home series against South Africa and Pakistan  because they had endorsement contracts with Cable and Wireless in conflict with the board’s chief sponsor, and telecommunications rivals, Digicel.

The WICB on Saturday opened the door for their possible selection, saying the players’ contracts were being examined to make sure they would not cause the players or WICB to be in breach of the US$20 million deal with Digicel. The decision came one day after Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, who is Caribbean cricket’s Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee chairman, said there was no longer any reason to exclude the seven players, even though they still have Cable and Wireless endorsement contracts. Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur dissociated himself from the eight-member subcommittee, which comprises Mitchell, Caribbean Community Deputy Secretary-General Edward Greene, former WICB vice president Clarvis Joseph, and the sports ministers of Antigua, Barbados,Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad.

The subcommittee “seems to be arrogating powers to itself  to impose on the board commercial arrangements between the board and other entities. I do not believe the committee has any authority to do so,” Arthur said, in a letter addressed to Mitchell and leaked to The Associated Press. A source close to Mitchell on Monday confirmed receipt of  the letter. And interviewed on Trinidad and Tobago’s TVG last night, Dr Mitchell said the subcommitee was a functioning part of Caricom but was not prepared to comment further on the matter. Digicel have rejected the subcommittee’s recommendations, saying that to limit the players’ connection to cricket in Cable and Wireless advertisements would not protect Digicel’s investment in West Indies cricket. Cable and Wireless were reluctant to endorse all of the subcommittee’s recommendations, because they threatened to undermine their sponsorship of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.