Board used brokers to mask Digicel's identity

A company was used to mask the identity of brokers International Sports Marketing and to avoid revealing the identity of Digicel when the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) asked Cable & Wireless to match their rival's bid.

This was revealed in the report of the Sponsorship Negotiations Review Committee (SNRC) handed in by Justice Anthony Lucky to newly-elected WICB president Ken Gordon on August 15 and which will be discussed at an executive board meeting on September 4 in St John's, Antigua.

And the firm is to have collected a 10% commission on the deal even though the WICB Chief Marketing Officer Darren Millien, who took over that post in September 2003 from then WICB president Teddy Griffith, claimed to have no knowledge of this aspect of the commission agreement that was signed on February 23, 2004.

ISM had had a business relationship with the Ireland-based telecommunications company Digicel and evidence given by ISM director David Brookes showed where ISM deliberately used the sevices of a firm referred to as SBI to "mask the indentity" of Digicel to Cable & Wireless (C&W).

"The reason for this," Brookes explained to the SNRC, "was because I had been informed that during the negotiations, Cable & Wireless had a clause in their contract whereby they had a right to see any offer made to the WICB for team sponsorship, and furthermore, had a two-week period to match any such offer."

Brookes continued: "Naturally knowing of the highly competitive commercial nature of the C&W/Digicel relationship, I assumed that C&W would not wish to be replaced by a competitor and, therefore, would automatically match the offer if they were aware it was on behalf of Digicel. I felt this put Digicel at an unfair disadvantage and because ISM had worked with Digicel in the past, ISM could be easily linked to them. To avoid this, I hired the services of SBI simply for client confidentiality reasons with the aim of ensuring that the Digicel offer was viewed fairly, reasonably and on a level playing field that C&W were therefore given the right to match this offer."

Millien told the committee that Griffith and WICB CEO Roger Brathwaite were the "driving forces" behind the negotiations to secure Digicel as the main sponsors. "The only people that received the offer were the chief executive officer and the president because they had to sign non-disclosure agreements as to the terms of the agreement and who it was, so there were some high level discussions going on at that point."

Asked if he was brought in after the agreement with Digicel was a fait accompli, Millien answered in the affirmative. Millien further recalled Griffith and Brathwaite stating to him that "this is what we have agreed to and we want you guys to hammer out a contract. So to that extent, I got my first meeting with Digicel attorneys and ISM/SBI in Jamaica," he stated of his mid-June 2004 meeting with them.

So who brought SBI into the matter? "I don't know," he stated. "We were just thinking this is a broker. We did not know if it was a bank appoaching us, a financial institution, a cellular entity, a mortgage company. We did not know."

Millien also disavowed knowledge of the 10% commission for SBI before asking the committee to refer the question to the WICB CEO when they showed him a copy of the February 23 commission agreement. "I never knew that there was a 10% commission for SBI in the negotiations," he stated, "I know there was a commission payable but my understanding was that it was for bringing the deal, like a finder's fee and that was it. During the course of this tour, I was informed it was paid on what the players get and that kind of thing."

Before negotiations had reached this stage, there were other conflicting reports according to the SNRC report. After informing the WICB by letter on March 16, 2004, that they decided not to match SBI's rival alleged bid, C&W general manager in Barbados David Austin indicated that he approached then WICB president Griffith with a verbal offer of US$4 million for the Home series only "sometime between March 17 - March 20, 2004."

However, when Austin contacted Griffith on March 29, 2004, the then WICB president said he had already met with "potential new sponsors and that there was a 21-day exclusive discussion agreement with this party", making Griffith "unable to consider" C&W's offer at the time. That 21-day exclusivity position was reiterated on that same day by WICB CEO Roger Brathwaite at a function for the West Indies cricket team.

However, when the committee questioned Digicel's Business Development Director and Sponsor Relations Liam Mc Dermott about the exclusive agreement, he responded: "The Review Committe referred to a "21-day exclusivity letter" signed at the meeting in March 2004. No exclusivity agreement was signed at the end of that meeting. An exclusivity agreement was however signed at the end of May 2004 in the circumstances set out below."

In March 2004, Mc Dermott went on to explain that Digicel, who had indicated their interest in sponsoring West Indies cricket "albeit informally" whilst sponsoring a golf tournament in Jamaica "some time before 2003, was advised that Cable & Wireless "had declined to match its offer and accordingly the WICB was prepared to meet with Digicel and negotiate terms under which Digicel would become the new principal sponor of West Indies Cricket."