20/20 Time Again

Written by Jonathan Cumberbatch

Saturday, 26 January 2008

With India's IPL sending convulsions through the global cricket community as the latest example of the amount of money the game (or a least this variant) commands, here in the Windies those with the means are jetting to the isle of Antigua for the second annual Stanford 20/20 competition which begins this weekend.

Memories are still fresh of the volcanic (FIFA) World Cup atmosphere and the classic final that met the first tournament and there is little doubt that there shall be more of the same from the crowd and the teams this time around as well.

Yup, as in India, where there's 20/20 there is a mountain of cash nearby. What is perhaps globally unique to this regional tournament is that Alan Stanford, a US-born billionaire and maverick entrepreneur, built the wondrous stadium in which it is played and provides all the prize money himself (US$20 million).

While there is down-stream sponsorship, the message remains quite undiluted this is a relationship between Stanford and the West Indian public. The WICB (soon to be rebranded as Cricket West Indies) has placed its collective finger to the wind and has provided ready support, bookending its regional first-class season around the tournament to ensure it receives the best of the dry season.

Trinidad & Tobago, even without the services of the cruelly injured Brian Lara, start the tournament as the overwheming favorites ready to make amends for their final ball Final loss to Guyana.

Eyes shall follow their progress but all eyes shall be on this social phenomena from first ball to last.

(The Stanford 20/20 is a hugely popular regional 20/20 tournament held in the West Indies. Its first edition was held in 2006, and its second edition, involving 20 teams, starts on the 27th of this month.

The tournament has been financed and built by a Texan millionaire Sir Allan Stanford, and is contested between various countries and territories in the West Indies, aside from the usual regions that have been producing Test cricketers regularly.
It is a knockout tournament, and there are big financial rewards involved, with the team that wins getting US$ 1 million, and its cricket board getting US$ 2,00,000 for its cricket development. The runner up team gets US$ 5,00,000 and its cricket board gets US$ 1,00,000, and so on. The total prize money runs up to US$1, 960,000.

The interesting part of the tournament are the 14 legends from West Indian cricket who are appointed to not only be the ambassadors of the sport, but also guide and help the teams develop. These legends include Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Garfield Sobers, Rev. Wes Hall, Lance Gibbs, Andy Roberts, Sir Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, Desmond Haynes, Courtney Walsh, Gordon Greenidge, Joel Garner, Richie Richardson, Ian Bishop and Curtly Ambrose.

Significant amounts of money are also provided to each participating country to develop infrastructure, provide for coaches and support staff, improve practice facilities and basically help prepare for the tournament.

Of course, the money and glamour is all welcome, but at the end of the day we hope the Stanford 20/20 continues doing what it claims to aim to do - popularize and grow cricket in not just the major test playing regions such as Trinidad, Jamaica and so on but also the other regions of the West Indies. The initial response has been promising, and there seems to be unadulterated passion and enthusiasm for the game.

www.stanford2020.com has more information that you might find useful.)