STANFORD ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):
LARGE SUMS of money will not be simply pumped into the Stanford Twenty20 without some long-term return on the investment. The tournament's financier, Texan billionaire Allen Stanford said on Wednesday, while Caribbean cricket was dear to him, the venture called for him to exercise some financial prudence.
"At the end of the day - I'm going to talk dollars and cents - there has to be some economic viability to this, there's has to be some economic purpose in this," Stanford said after he announced he would put an additional US$100 million into the tournament over the next three years.
"As much as I love cricket, love the Caribbean and love being with the legends and am pained to the core of my soul about the shape of our cricket, there will come a limit in terms of my funding at this level.
"So there has to be some business purpose behind it. The business purpose is to create something here called entertainment, be it sports, which is all sports is today, it's entertainment."
Officials announced on Wednesday that the second Stanford Twenty20 would bowl off in January next year with two teams, Cuba and Turks & Caicos, added to lift the participating nations to 21.
Stanford, who injected more than US$30 million into the inaugural tournament last year, said he was hoping to stage an All-Star match at the end of the tournament which would see a Stanford Twenty20 All-Star team clash with the winner of a single elimination competition contested between South Africa, India, Sri Lanka and Australia.
Pro league
He said, however, if this did not materialise, energies would be refocused on streamlining 21 professional teams in the Caribbean with the aim of establishing a pro league. "We will go out throughout the region and create 21 professional teams. In other words, have full-time paid cricket players like they do everywhere else in the world, like other professional sports teams operate," Stanford stressed.
"I've talked to the (Twenty20) board, they're in agreement. It's a very aggressive task."
Stanford reiterated his stance that a professional approach was needed for cricket in the region, unlike the past where the greats played for national pride.
"Unfortunately, the days when Lance (Gibbs) played and Sir Everton (Weekes) played for the heart and soul of the nation and the region, are gone," Stanford emphasised. "It's entertainment, and it's all about business. I'm determined to see this business a success, but along the way we all win."
