Stanford controversy to hit ECB and West Indies

What does cricket think it is playing at? First we had the controversy over the England captaincy, with both captain and coach losing their jobs.  Then the 2nd Test abandonment in Antigua.  As if that were not enough, a scandal is erupting to far outweigh those that have gone before.

News has broken that Allen Stanford, benefactor of West Indies cricket and with whom the ECB climbed into bed with distasteful speed, has been charged with a “fraud of shocking magnitude”.  Shocking is indeed the word, with figures of $8bn being quoted.  Quite what this means for the future of West Indies cricket is uncertain, but with Stanford being by far the biggest sponsor of cricket on the Islands they are in danger of having the rug pulled from beneath their feet.

In a statement, the ECB announced that they have broken off the ongoing negotiations over the future Twenty20 matches and the participation of a Stanford team in a domestic English league.  Clearly, the likelihood of this moving forward will now be seriously questioned.

With the financial free-for-all that is the IPL in full flow, cricket administrators the world over have made it clear that they would step over their own mothers to get a piece of the action, with those at the ECB foremost amongst them.  Questions will be asked, as they were when the deal was struck, about the wisdom of the Stanford arrangement.

Giles Clarke was recently re-elected unopposed to the chairmanship of the ECB, but will face much scrutiny having played the major role in the association with Stanford and his corporation in the first place and now admitting that the deal may have been an “error of judgement”.

Cricket has been swiftly selling it’s soul for the sake of a fist full of dollars.  Let’s hope for the good of the sport that the events of today act as solid kick up the backside.  At the very least, an inquiry should now be conducted to establish the future direction of English domestic cricket.  The EPL plans have recently been watered down, the quadrangular Stanford tournament planned to take place this summer will likely be abandoned, and the problems of IPL player commitment will start to hit both the counties and the national team.

The problem here is that inquiries have been conducted before and have either achieved nothing or been left forgotten on the bookshelf gathering dust.  A failure to draw up a feasible contigency plan, however, will leave English cricket continuing to bumbling aimlessly forward to the detriment of all.  Sadly, faith in the administrators is deservedly lacking, and it would be no surprise if the status quo were to continue.  We can only hope that this will not be the case.