Cable & Wireless retract their claims

Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle: have terminated contracts © Getty Images Enlarge

Cable & Wireless have, as predicted, retracted on their earlier claims that Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan were still under contract to the company, and have issued a press release to clarify the situation. The upshot is that both players should now be available to take on South Africa in the second Test at Trinidad, which begins next week.

In an earlier statement, C&W had emphatically denied that Sarwan and Gayle had terminated their contracts - a fact that had been exclusively revealed by Cricinfo - and "were working to separate fact from rumour". That process, it would appear, has now been completed, after their senior vice-president of corporate marketing for the Caribbean, Rachelle Franklin, confirmed that the company was, after all, in receipt of a fax from the players' attorney, Sanjeev Datadin.

"We regret that we were unavailable to previously confirm receipt of this letter," said Mr Franklin in a unequivocal climbdown, "as it had been sent yesterday at 17.00 hours to an office in Trinidad, where there was a public holiday. Consequently, there was no-one there to receive it. We apologise to Mr Datadin for any undue discomfort this may have caused him or his clients."

The statement concluded: "Company officials will be holding discussions today with players Sarwan, Gayle and attorney Datadin regarding this letter and possible next steps in light of the new WICB-backed proposal for further review of the contracts by Caricom-appointed adjudicator, Justice Adrian Saunders."