ECB tempted by Caribbean cash

London: England's cricketers could be the beneficiaries of the biggest payday in the sport's history.

Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford offered to fund a $20 million prize for the winner of a 20-over "Stanford Challenge'' between England and a West Indian all-stars side in the Caribbean next spring.

Within the history of sport, only a very small number of major boxing fights have offered such astronomical rewards for a single day's work.

The prize fund is hugely exciting for the cricketers themselves, who are used to being paid far less than the world's best footballers or baseball players.

Publicity

But the idea will surely alarm traditionalists, who are bound to fear that the spirit of cricket could be eclipsed. The pressure on the teams would be astronomical, and it would be a brave man who volunteered to bowl the last over with the game on the line. The England and Wales Cricket Board issued a tight-lipped statement that gave little clue as to the seismic implications of Stanford's proposal. It merely confirmed that "a meeting has been held with Sir Allen Stanford in the full knowledge of the West Indies Cricket Board'', and described the conversation as "very positive and constructive''. Further discussions will follow next month. If the deal can be finalised, it will certainly help relations between the ECB and their players, who are furious that they are not being allowed to play in the billion-dollar Indian Premier League either this season or next.

Stanford flew into London, where he went on a tour of Lord's and then into a meeting with Giles Clarke and David Collier, the ECB chairman and chief executive respectively. He then laid down his proposals: a $20 million prize fund for the winning team, nothing for the losers. "I call it the OK Corral, Twenty20 for twenty,'' he has said in the past. Stanford has now organised two seasons of domestic 20-over cricket in the West Indies under his name.

His motivation lies chiefly in the publicity the competition provides for the Stanford Financial Group, but also in the possibility of cracking the untapped market of the United States.

Since the launch of the Twenty20 Cup in 2003, there has been a growing feeling that this format has the potential to rival baseball.