ECB chairman Giles Clarke will resists calls to resign despite Sir Allen Stanford being charged with "massive fraud".
ECB chairman remains defiant over Stanford storm
ECB chairman Giles Clarke will resists calls to resign in spite of Sir Allen Stanford being charged with "massive fraud".
Stanford, along with two of his business associates and three of his companies were charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for "orchestrating a fraudulent, multi-billion dollar investment scheme centring on an $8billion CD (certificate of deposit) programme" on Tuesday.
As a result the ECB have ceased negotiations with Stanford, who had been expected to become a major backer of the proposed P20 tournament in England from 2010.
The ECB had been in talks with Stanford over the possibility of a quadrangular event, worth $9m between the competing teams, along with Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
However Lord Marland, who withdrew from standing in the elections to become ECB chairman, has suggested Clarke - as well as chief executive David Collier - should step down.
Defiant
"In most other businesses some people would resign if they had been involved in such a fiasco as this," he said.
"It is entirely up to Giles Clarke and David Collier what action they take."
However Clarke is remaining defiant and said in
The Independent: "I will not be resigning."
The ECB have been accused in some quarters of failing to fully carry out due diligence before making their agreement with Stanford for the Twenty20 for $20million matches against an All Star XI.
However Clarke insists that they had carried out all the relevant checks.
"He was conducting a banking operation, which, at the time - based on the information from the work that was done - showed no indication that there was anything that could prevent him from paying his obligations," Clarke added.
"We did what we did because we believed we were doing the right thing to raise funds for West Indies cricket and, indeed, our own game."
