Lucky Split

Two members of the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) Sponsorship Negotiations Review Committee on Thursday distanced themselves from from a published declaration by committee chairman Justice Anthony Lucky that the Digicel contract should be renegotiated and could be declared null and void.

The two -- Gregory Georges and Avondale Thomas -- decried the publication of "bits of the report" in the Caribbean media that suggest former sponsor Cable & Wireless was not treated fairly in the negotiations with the WICB.

"We wish in particular to completely disassociate ourselves from the declaration made by the Committee's Chairman, Mr. Justice Anthony Lucky, which appeared in the Trinidad Guardian on August 21, 2005, and is replicated in other regional media," Georges and Thomas said in a statement published by the CMC Sports.

"That declaration is the Chairman's personal document, and does not in any way form part of the Committee's conclusions or recommendations as reported by the media."

Georges and Thomas said that nowhere in the Committee's conclusions or recommendations is any call made for re-negotiation of the contract or is there any pronouncement that the contract itself was null and void.

"The Chairman did advise us of his personal declaration and the contents therein, but we then and there told him that we did not share his view," the duo said.

"Further, we view the continued disclosure of confidential information relating to the Committee's report as an attempt to distort the findings of the Committee. We strongly deplore such behaviour and regret that it is necessary to make this statement."