KEY POINTS:
Good news for all those who figure having a Twenty20 game with a US$20 million ($29 million) purse is ever so slightly out of whack.
There's a decent chance the Stanford Superstars vs England winner-take-all showdown in Antigua might not happen.
The game is in the hands of the High Court in London with a sponsorship wrangle threatening to dismantle the inaugural three-hour bash on November 1 which would have turned a group of players into instant millionaires, at least those who weren't already.
The state of play is this:
Mobile phone company Digicel, who have a five-year deal as sponsors of West Indies cricket, insist that as the Superstars are a West Indian team in all but name, their rights should be protected. They have won an injunction against Stanford stopping the game proceeding. Arbitration begins next Friday.
Both the England and Wales board and their West Indian counterparts claim the match has authorised unofficial status. That means it has been officially approved, but is also unofficial in that records of the game won't count.
Digicel say as it's official, their contract kicks in; Stanford say it's not, therefore they hold the aces.
The two parties have exchanged robustly-worded press statements putting the slipper into each other. Digicel were offered a shutout of their telecommunication rivals during the Stanford series - which involves Middlesex, Trinidad and Tobago, England and the inappropriately-named Superstars - coverage of any legal costs with the West Indies board and free branding for the tournament.
But the sticking point is Digicel's insistence on their logos appearing on the Superstars shirts, as per usual official West Indies clothing. Stanford - named for Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire who is hurling Monopoly money at West Indies cricket - won't budge on that, hence the arbitration.
Players will be fretting at missing out on their US$1 million.
English offspinner Graeme Swann had dreamt of buying a pink Ferrari; others will have their plans for Stanford's largesse.
The West Indies squad is, on paper, ordinary, only a handful of names among the 17 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Daren Powell and Darren Sammy - being immediately recognisable outside their region.
The highest-profile among those who question Stanford's real motivation for biffing money at Twenty20 cricket is Michael Holding, the former West Indian speed legend, and ironically, the person who introduced Stanford to cricket three years ago.
The man formerly known as Whispering Death, fired some heat-seeking verbal missiles past Stanford, publicly questioning his endgame.
"I do not think he is telling the people what he's really about," Holding said.
"I am not going to be involved in a farce. He's telling people in the Caribbean that he wants to revive West Indian cricket but how is a week of Twenty20 cricket in Antigua going to do that?
"He wants to promote himself and his companies, that's all. If people can't see that then I can't help them, it's their problem."
The global Twenty20 canvas also includes the Indian Premier League/Indian Cricket League standoff and December's Champions League - which has plans to jump from eight teams to 12 next year, probably including New Zealand's champion Twenty20 team this summer.
With plans for sprouting more of the fizzy can variety of cricket round the planet you wonder how the International Cricket Council can maintain any measure of order.
"Out of a difficult situation can come a lot of good," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said yesterday. "If there wasn't an interest in the sport there wouldn't be so many challenges."
Which is true, but does the ICC possess the ability to manage the cricket classroom, with the students' eyes darting in different directions?
Lorgat insists the ICC are working overtime to keep the levers pointing in the right direction.
"The world is a changed place. We have to learn to adapt."
They'll find it easier said than done right now.
