$100m pumped into T20 cricket

2008-06-11 22:06

London - Allen Stanford arrived by helicopter at the home of cricket, bringing with him millions in cash and plans to revolutionise the sport.

Sharply dressed, the Texas-born billionaire sat behind a crate load of money - bundles of $10 000 in $50 bills - and outlined his strategy for Twenty20 cricket to take over the game.

English cricket has never seen anything like it.

The moustachioed American, who has lived in the Caribbean for 26 years, says he wants to give something back to his adopted community.

So, he's spending $100m to fund five Twenty20 matches over five years between England and his West Indies selection, the Stanford Super Stars. The first $20m winner-take-all match will be held on November 1 in Antigua.

It's the richest payday for a professional cricketer - $1m for each of the 11 players on the winning team, with the remainder split between the reserve players and staff and national cricket associations.

Stanford said he wanted the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) involved in the concept because he believed the country that invented cricket could help revolutionise it.

"With the right financial support behind it and the right vision, it can be the dominant team sport in the world, that's bigger than football," Stanford said.

Little time for the traditional form of the game

Stanford also hopes to reintroduce cricket to the Olympics - it made one appearance in 1900.

"I think Twenty20 is destined to be an Olympic sport if the ECB drives the sport to the next level," Stanford said. "In 10 years, I think it can be."

He has little time for the traditional form of the game, Test matches which can often go five days without a winner. He instead compared Test and Twenty20 cricket with differing architectural styles at Lord's, where an elevated sleek pod that houses the press box looks over stately buildings.

"I find it boring but I'm not a purist," Stanford admitted when quizzed on Test cricket. "Here at Lord's, the buildings go back to the 1700s, that's Test cricket. If you look at the new 'Eye in the Sky' (the modern media centre at Lord's), that's the Twenty20 game.

"You could no more do away with the 'Eye in the Sky' than you could do away with that 1700s building. Test cricket is the foundation, where cricket came from. Twenty20, however, is the future and that's where you'll make your money."

- AP