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Other Sports
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CRICKET
According to reports, England have agreed to play five
winner-takes-all £10m Twenty20 matches in the Caribbean after
signing a deal with Sir Allen Stanford.
The first match will be on 1 November against Stanford's Super
Stars at Sir Allen's cricket ground in Antigua.
Winning players will receive £500,000 each, with another £1m split
between the rest of the squad and coaches.
The remaining £3.5m will be divided between the England and
West Indies Cricket Boards.
It is believed to be the richest team prize for a single sporting
match.
The deal will be for five years with a match being held annually
in November.
Sir Allen arrived at Lord's for the announcement by private
helicopter, landing on the nursery ground.
The launch was attended by a number of past cricket stars
including Sir Ian Botham, Sir Viv Richards, Sir Garfield Sobers,
Sir Everton Weekes, Curtly Ambrose and Nasser Hussain.
And during the event, $20m (£10m) in cash was brought on to the
stage to highlight the serious amount of money involved.
The agreement is part of Sir Allen's ongoing initiative to try and
reverse the decline of West Indies cricket.
He has been bankrolling a local Twenty20 tournament in the
Caribbean since 2006, with $2m prize money on offer, and the
Stanford Super Stars will be made up of these players.
"It is one night, winner-takes-all $20m," said Sir Allen, who
claimed in April that Twenty20 cricket could replace football as
the biggest game in world sport in less than 10 years.
"The winner goes home happy, the loser goes home unhappy.
"We had to create something that had never been done before and
take cricket to the previous level in the Caribbean, we have not
been running our sport at a professional level."
Asked why he chose the England and Wales Cricket Board, Sir Allen
replied: "We know they have the best organisation, management and
structure to develop cricket in the 21st century. They are getting
my support."
Sir Allen, 58, first offered a $5m (£2.5m) one-off
winner-takes-all match to South Africa but they declined because
the dates were impractical.
He then tried to entice India and doubled the prize money but they
also refused. |
