Tony Becca

On November 1, on Antigua's Independence Day, the West Indies, or rather, the Stanford All-Stars, will take on England in a winner-take-all Twenty20 shoot-out at the Stanford cricket ground in St John's.

The US$20 million prize money will be divided as follows: US$1 million each to the eleven members of the winning team, US$1 million to be divided among the other members of the squad, US$1 million to be shared among the management team, and the remaining US$7 million will be divided between the England Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board.

And there is more: that arrangement will last for five years for a total of US$100 million in prize money.

And there is still more: Sir Allen Stanford has said that he is putting up another US$9.5 million a year for five years to host an annual quadrangular tournament to be held in England, and which will always include England and the West Indies, he is putting up US$10 million for four years for the development of school cricket in the region, and as of now, he will be paying the WICB US$1 million per year for the right to stage his regional annual Twenty20 tournament.

Because of his love

According to Stanford, all this money, plus that spent on his million-dollar winner-take-all Stanford Twenty20, is going into West Indies cricket because of his love for West Indies cricket.

According to the Texan-Antiguan, he would love nothing more than to see West Indies cricket get back to where it was when he first entered the West Indies 26 years ago, and that, nothing else, is why he has gathered around him legends like Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Garfield Sobers, and Sir Vivian Richards, and why he has been dealing out so much of his money.

The question once again, however, is this: is Stanford really interested in the development of West Indies cricket, or whatever the reason, in spreading the Stanford name - the Stanford brand?

According to many West Indians, instead of providing so much prize-money - money which goes straight to the players, if Stanford was really interested in development he would have given his money, or most of it, to the West Indies Board, and in many ways they are right. As one who, however, remembers the days of long ago when West Indies players got nothing in return for their skill - including the fact that the late, great George Headley was not selected for the 1950 tour of England because he dared to ask for a little bit more money, and the day, a few years later, when the late, great Alfred Valentine was dropped from the Jamaica team because he complained about the offer of five pounds sterling to play a four-day match against a visiting team, it is difficult to fault Stanford.

Underpaid

The American billionaire may, as he has said time and time again, really believe that West Indian cricketers are underpaid, that they deserve to be better paid, and that if we want them to perform, we have to pay them so that they are motivated to train and to practice.

Maybe because he is a businessman, and obviously a successful one at that, he also believes, as he has also said time and time again, that reward should be for a job well done.

Although the losers will go home empty-handed, the winners, for some three hours work at most, will pocket more money than only a handful of players in the Indian Premier League for almost two months work, and that is a lot of money.

The winners can afford to be independent and to live like kings, such wealth would or should make West Indies cricketers happy and confident, it would leave them with nothing to worry about, with enough time to train and to practice, and may be instead of criticising Stanford for what he does with his money, for where he puts his money, West Indians should be hoping and praying that the West Indies, or rather the Stanford All-Stars, will rise to the occasion and will win the shoot-out and do well in the quadrangular tournaments.

Not official

Stanford may well have some thing else on his agenda, and remembering that because of his black bats his tournaments are authorised but are not official, that they would prefer that he handed more of his money over to them, the West Indies, as well as the ECB, may well be genuflecting before him because of his money.

Lest it is forgotten, however, Stanford has given the West Indies players the chance of winning a pot of gold every year, he has now given them a chance of winning a bigger pot of gold every year, and he has made them happy.

On top of that, he gives the boards of the teams which participate in his regional Twenty 20 tournament some money every year, he has set aside seven million dollars to be shared, each year, between the ECB and the WICB, and although, and especially so in the case of the West Indies Board, when it comes to the amount he spends and intends spending on the game, it could be more, it is better, much better, than nothing.

I really do not know what Stanford, apart from eventually making some more money, is looking for, or where he is going. As one who believes that a man is free to do what he wants to do with his money, however, as one who has always believed that the players needed more money, and that that money should not come from the government, my big concern, my main concern with Stanford is that he went to Lord's, and when asked his opinion of Test cricket, his reply was: "I find it boring".