International Cricket Council President David Morgan and chief executive Haroon Lorgat will on Monday attempt to broker an agreement in the long-running dispute between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Cricket League (ICL). “I've long regarded it as a priority to bring together the BCCI and the owners of the ICL and I'm pleased to say we have fixed a meeting to take place in Johannesburg on Monday,” said Morgan. The ICL, which is bankrolled by India's largest media group, Zee Television, is not recognized by the BCCI or the ICC, unlike the Indian Premier League (IPL) which has paid fantastic sums to lure players to its tournament. “I hope we might be successful in coming to a mutually acceptable conclusion. I can't be certain that will be the case but I hope we can at least make a start in bringing about a settlement,” added Morgan. Earlier this week, a Pakistani court lifted domestic bans on the country's last six active players who had joined the ICL. ECB severs ties with Stanford English cricket severed its ties with Texas billionaire Allen Stanford on Friday following accusations he was involved in an $8 billion fraud. Stanford landed in a helicopter at cricket's Lord's headquarters last year to launch the Stanford Super Series which culminated last November in England playing a West Indies side in a $20 million winner-takes-all showdown in Antigua. In a statement the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said it had terminated, with immediate effect, its contracts with the Stanford group following a meeting of the executive committee on Friday. “ECB was shocked by the charges filed against the Stanford organization and personnel earlier this week,” ECB chief executive David Collier said. “Within minutes of the announcement, ECB determined to suspend any further discussions with Stanford and the board has now agreed to terminate the ECB's agreements with Stanford.” The ECB said England would not take part in any more Stanford Twenty20 matches in Antigua while this year's Stanford-sponsored international quadrangular event, scheduled to begin at Lord's in May, would not now go ahead. Collier added: “Given the uncertainty of the financial markets and the sponsorship dispute between Digicel and the West Indies Cricket Board over the matches in Antigua in 2008, when setting the 2009 budgets the board took a prudent position in creating a contingency in case the Antigua matches did not proceed.” Stanford's influence on English cricket and the glitzy one-off match in Antigua has been criticized by many within the game while ECB chairman Giles Clarke has come in for media criticism over the relationship with the American. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) also said this week it was suspending contractual negotiations with Stanford.
