Conflict of interest

Head of Marketing of Cable and Wireless here in St Vincent and the Grenadines Fitzgerald Huggins is concerned with a recent decision by the St Vincent and the Grenadines Netball Association (SVGNA).

He sees the acceptance of branding material from rival company Digicel as promotional tokens on a recent overseas trip, as a “serious breach of our relationship”.

“We have had a tremendous relationship with the netball association over the years, and I see it as a conflict of interest,” Huggins pointed out. {{more}}

“We expected if they needed branding material, they should have approached us in the first place,” he added.

“If we had turned them down, then that was a different matter,” Huggins reasoned.

Huggins said that although it did not involve a major contribution facilitating the national team’s travel to Barbados, his company “must have some value”.

Cable and Wireless has been the title sponsor of the annual national club tournament for twelve years, and has assisted in many national representative teams on overseas assignments.

Decidedly cautious in the situation, Huggins stated: “In the circumstances, one has to be fair to all parties.”

Explaining his company’s decision to cutback on sponsorship for the national club tournament this year, Huggins said, “there’s has been a change of emphasis on making the players benefit more from our input”.

The national tournament that ended last July saw Cable and Wireless purchasing the trophies and providing other support to the local association.

However, the company made alterations on previous arrangements, hence reducing the sponsorship deal by more than half.

Digicel, an Irish based telecommunications company with operations in several Caribbean states, took over the sponsorship of the West Indies Cricket team from Cable and Wireless two years ago.