When money mixes with sport the end result is not so sporting.
The Captain, Brian Lara, and six other senior West Indies cricketers have not been invited to play in the home series against South Africa and Pakistan despite making their individual sponsorship contracts available for scrutiny.
The seven were not selected because of a contract dispute which centres on a potential clash between the West Indies’ main official sponsor, Digicel, and the players’ personal deals with Cable & Wireless.
ENN says today about digicel
Digicel, the Caribbean mobile operator controlled by Denis O’Brien, has raised USD408 million in new funding.
The provider of mobile phone services in Jamaica, Barbados and other parts of the Caribbean raised the cash from a syndicate of investors, led by Citigroup, one of the biggest banks in the world. It is understood that two of Ireland’s biggest banks, Bank of Ireland and AIB, also contributed to the round.
if the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) & digicel & C&W, cause Lara & Co. to miss the tests it reflects badly on all concerned. Money & TV rights and shirt sponsors and named stadiums are ever present in sport nowadays. But it can no longer be called sport its business, the pawns of the big sponsors are on the field (or not on the field as this story would show) at the behest and pay of the BIG sponsors.
Meanwhile FOOT.ie has a thread about real replica jerseys, it seems according to the Irish Sun’s read of this board that the Boys in Green dont have eircom on the jersey when they play internationals, but replica jerseys have a big Eircom logo on the front. When is a replica not a replica? Im sure its proper and correct to have the logo on the jersey, if the team have one also…. How much of this BIG sponsors money trickles down to school boy soccer? read the next most recent blog posting here about what happens to a community when the under funded FC get a digiCEL C&W or H3G mast on their roof.. or read the same story but this time from manchester. so with digiCEL I’ve come full 360° rant ends – oh a BTW comments welcome..
Anyone for (real) cricket?