Changing Markets Kill SAIL Investment

The stakeholders of West Indies cricket should be happy to hear that the proposed secret selling-off of their birth rights by the Executive Committee of the WICB to the South African Investments Limited (SAIL) will not materialise.

At the last shareholders meeting of the WICB in Dominica in July this year, shareholders and directors were unsuccessful in obtaining information from the all-powerful Executive Commitee, and lead director relating to SAIL, Stephen Alleyne, on the status of the proposed investment agreement between SAIL and the WICB.

However, this writer?s perusal of SAIL documents reveal that the investment was cancelled. The SAIL Group Limited (in a statement dated April 31, 2003 on its Audited Group Results For The Year Ended 31 December 2002) stated that "SAIL's proposed investment in the West Indies was cancelled due to a change in the market and costs previously capitalised have been written off."

Group Chief Executive Selwyn Nathan said "while the 2002 financial results are disappointing, we are confident that the dramatic re-focusing of the business will put the company on a new growth path."

It is confusing to West Indian Stakeholders, Shareholders and Directors, why there was not full disclosure on the SAIL matter and why the difficulty to reveal that the investment was cancelled. The Board and Annual meetings were held in July 2003 and clearly, the public domain information in the News Release must have been available for distribution to the Board.

It is imperative that the EC -- comprising WICB vice president E. Val Banks, Stephen Alleyne, Chetram Singh, Richard DeSouza, Roger Brathwaite (CEO) and Barry Thomas (CFO) -- provide an explanation to WICB shareholders and directors.

The WICB should share with the West Indian people what it was attempting to do and why the deal fell apart.

Transparency and accountability in financial matters is the cornerstone to good corporate governance. To regain credibility, the WICB needs to clear the air on the many financial and accounting skeletons in its closets.

* For more on the SAIL investment, read my earlier article on the future of the WICB.