10/10/2008 6:12 AM
The multi-million dollar Stanford Twenty20 match will go ahead as planned, tournament organisers confirmed on Thursday.
Agreement has now been reached between match organisers Stanford and telecommunications company Digicel.
A statement read: "Stanford 20/20 confirmed today that the schedule for the Stanford Super Series and Stanford 20/20 for 20 will proceed as planned starting 25th October 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 for 10am local time on Thursday where it was expected the governing body's directors would ratify an agreement to allow the winner-takes-all $US20million match to go ahead.
And 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.
An agreement has now been confirmed and the WICB have been able to give the game their sanction.
Digicel also revealed the agreement in a statement, which read: "Digicel is delighted to confirm that negotiations have been successful and that arrangements have been put in place to allow for the Series to continue for at least the next three years."
"As such, the match scheduled between the West Indies and England on the 1st November 2008 will now proceed."
"Digicel has at all times supported the Stanford initiative and from the outset sought a negotiated compromise with the relevant parties."
"Following the ruling made by the Arbitrator that the WICB had breached its Sponsorship Agreement with Digicel, Digicel immediately commenced negotiations with Stanford Cricket."
The WICB was forced to revoke its sanctioning of the game on Tuesday after London's High Court upheld Digicel's claim that its deal with Stanford has compromised its sponsorship with the governing body.
That ruling had forced Stanford, who had wanted to find its own sponsors for the game, to the negotiation table after it had previously expressed the belief that the game was not an official West Indies match and therefore that Digicel had no sponsorship rights.