Windies settles sponsorship row

The dispute between members of the West Indies squad and the country’s cricket board over sharing team sponsorship revenues at the Worl...

The dispute between members of the West Indies squad and the country’s cricket board over sharing team sponsorship revenues at the World Cup has been settled, West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said on Thursday. Roger Braithwaite, acting chief executive officer of the WICB, said the body was satisfied with a settlement that maintained the established principle of team sponsorship being shared between the players and the WICB. West Indies’ official sponsor to the World Cup, the LNM Group, will give the team incentives for progressing in the competition as originally proposed. Dinanath Ramnarine, president of the West Indies Players Association, was also pleased with the outcome, saying: ‘‘The team is satisfied with the agreement and fully committed to fulfilling the obligations to the new sponsor.

Zimbabwe World Cup games to go ahead

LONDON: The ICC has given the go-ahead for six World Cup matches to be played in Zimbabwe. The decision to keep the matches in Zimbabwe was taken by the ICC’s executive board on Friday which decided players would not be at risk if they played in the southern African country. ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said that the board had decided there was “no reason on grounds of safety and security to relocate the games from Zimbabwe”. But he was not as clear-cut about the position of Kenya where two World Cup matches are due to be played. “There is a question mark over Kenya … there are some concerns over safety and security,” he said. There will be a further ICC meeting late next week to decide whether the games involving New Zealand and Sri Lanka will go ahead.

Tribute to Hansie: More players join Donald

Durban: South Africa’s senior players have dedicated the 2003 World Cup to outcast cricketer Hansie Cronje, newspapers reported on Friday. Former South African captain Cronje, who died in a plane crash in June, was banned for life for his prominent role in a match-fixing scandal. ‘‘For me this World Cup is going to be extra special and there’s an extra special person I’d like to dedicate it to,’’ Jonty Rhodes was quoted as saying. Herschelle Gibbs, who was also banned for six months for his involvement in match-fixing, made a similar pledge.