A series of transatlantic phone calls between the billionaires at the head of two warring factions was necessary to ensure that England’s winner-takes-all $20 million Twenty20 match in Antigua on November 1 will go ahead as planned. Allen Stanford, head of the eponymous financial services group, and Denis O’Brien, majority owner of Digicel, spoke to each other for the first time about the conflict on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, after which they agreed that the wrangling should stop. Then, as billionaires do, they left it to the lawyers to sort out the fine detail.

Although these details will only emerge when the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) ratifies the deal — and it was meeting in St Lucia to do so yesterday evening — they will be based around the three proposals put forward by Digicel on September 11. Stanford had agreed to two of them, namely that Cable and Wireless, Digicel’s competitor in the region, would not be brought on board as a tournament sponsor and that Digicel’s legal costs would be discharged.

Now the final sticking point — the issue of Digicel branding on the Stanford players’ shirts — has been settled. The compromise is likely to allow Stanford’s team to wear their distinctive all-black shirts but emblazoned with the Digicel logo. Digicel will also be granted the same branding rights as it would get for a normal one-day international in the Caribbean.

Although Stanford pronounced himself pleased with the process and the outcome, these negotiations were extremely acrimonious and this represents a significant climbdown for him. Digicel has been granted its full commercial and branding rights and, according to reports, only the first three years of the five-year deal have been agreed upon.

Subject to the WICB ratification, though, the match will go ahead — much to Stanford’s relief and, no doubt, England’s players, who stand to become dollar millionaires overnight if they win the encounter.

Another fraught Twenty20 competition gets under way today when Hyderabad Heroes play Lahore Badshahs in the first match of the latest Indian Cricket League (ICL) competition. It is a reprise of the three-match final series in April, won by Hyderabad. Chennai Superstars, captained by Stuart Law, the Lancashire captain last season, won the first ICL tournament in December last year.

The competition may be unofficial and under constant attack from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which backs the Indian Premier League (IPL), but the ICL is flourishing.

A ninth team, Dhaka Warriors, are involved and among the players taking part are a dozen with links to English counties, although it is understood that, because they had signed long-term contracts before the start of last season, the ECB will not seek to ban them from taking part in next season’s domestic cricket.

They include Murray Goodwin, the Sussex batsman, Dale Benkenstein, who captained Durham to their first County Championship title this summer, and Law, whose contract with Lancashire has expired and whom the county are hoping to re-sign.

The tensions between Australia and India threatened to boil over on the first day of the four-Test series yesterday when Ricky Ponting survived a close caught-and-bowled decision in Bangalore.

Ponting was on 110 — his first century in India — when he drove a full-pitched ball from Anil Kumble back to the bowler. The leg spinner appealed to Rudi Koertzen, the umpire, who thought that it was a bump ball and did not call for a television replay. Australia ended the first day on 254 for four, with Ponting having been dismissed for 123.