A ghost from the past...
What's in a name may be the popular refrain, but not when you want to somehow forget that unwanted past association. At the World Twenty20, the question that sprung to one's mind was whether the West Indies players were still associated with Stanford? Sanjjeev K Samyal reports.
What's in a name may be the popular refrain, but not when you want to somehow forget that unwanted past association.
At the World Twenty20, the question that sprung to one's mind was whether the West Indies players were still associated with Stanford? Remember the name? And the winner-takes-all Twenty20 series in Antigua in 2008 which left many England players angry as the man who floated that league got a bit too cosy with their wives and girl friends!
In Colombo on Sunday, as the Caribbean players got ready to face Ireland in their second Group game, one's attention was drawn to the stickers on the bats and kit bags of some of the players, they had the brand name Stanford with the logo SF.
And the curiosity grew when one noticed that some of the players kept the bat repairer at the Colts Cricket Club busy removing the brand name and logos on their bats.
It was interesting as Stanford has not been the right name to be associated with in West Indies. The immediate connection is with disgraced tycoon Allen Stanford, who has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $7billion.
Confusion?
A Texan banker, Stanford had bankrolled the Twenty20 league, held in Antigua on a cricket field right outside the VC Bird international airport.
The confusion, however, was cleared by manager Richie Richardson. "He's in jail maan! Stanford doesn't do bats," said the former West Indies skipper, who hails from Antigua. "I don't know why they are cleaning the bats, but I know this is an Indian company," revealed the West Indies media officer Phil Spooner.
Well, deliberately or not, West Indies players can do without having to explain the name they would rather forget.