Stanford confirms $5 million match is off

Allen Stanford faces the media in Antigua © Cricinfo

After a week of uncertainty over the future of the Stanford 20/20 Super Star match between South Africa and West Indies planned for November 10, Allen Stanford has confirmed that the game will not go ahead.

At a press conference in Antigua, Stanford outlined the sequence of events that led to his decision, while Wes Hall, who hosted the meeting, added that Stanford had been "distraught" when he called to advise him of the cancellation last week. "The man was truly hurt by the chain of events that led to the only decision he could come to," Hall said.

Stanford was clearly unhappy as he explained his position. "We have done everything right. I have done everything I said I would do and more. We obtained approval from the ruling body for cricket eight months ago, invited and involved the West Indies board in everything that we are doing. Many of the legends are part of the West Indies Cricket Board.

"We had a great tournament (20/20) and we wanted to sum it all up with our best facing an international side. I am truly sorry that is not able to happen this year. There is too much uncertainty and there is too much at stake to move forward with the match at this stage."

However, Stanford added that the South Africans would be invited again to play a Super Star team in mid-2008. The team would come from those players participating in the next Stanford 20/20 tournament which is scheduled to take place between December 2007 and February 2008. Stanford also announced that the board which had organised and run the successful 20/20 tournament last month would be disbanded until next May.

Hopes that the match could go ahead had been raised last week with an announcement by Shaharyar Khan, chairman PCB, that they were willing to "bend over backwards" to accomodate the WICB and Stanford. The PCB were willing to revise the itinerary of the West Indies' tour to Pakistan in November by a few days so that the Super Star match could be played - the original conundrum was that the contest was scheduled for November 10, whereas according to the touring schedule, West Indies would be in Pakistan by then with the first Test due to begin on November 11.

As it turns out, however, the decision to cancel the match had already been taken by the time the offer was made.