The Legacy of Allen Stanford.

This week saw American business man Allen Stanford convicted of running one of the biggest ponzi schemes in history, totalling more than $7 Billion. He is well known around the world now because of this; however a few years ago he became well known for another reason, his organisation of the Twenty20 for $20 Million game. What I want to look at is what has he contributed to the game of cricket in the West Indies? Has he done more harm than good?

In 2005 Stanford launched the Stanford 20/20, having been a member of the Caribbean community for 30 years, he had seen West Indies Cricket seen good times and bad, but the years before it's launch, he had seen West Indies cricket fall by the way side, kids where more interested in football and basketball than cricket, and by launching this competition felt he could breathe fresh life in to cricket. “West Indies Cricket is an almost tangible force which can unify an entire country, an entire group of people, no matter the differences that might exist off the field, in the
Houses of Parliaments or between nations,” said Stanford. “The energy, the pride, the passion that cricket has inspired in the people of the Caribbean is not only moving but also infectious.”

The idea was to have an Island vs Island competition, something that didn't happen anywhere else in the world. He felt the rivalry that this would bring could be seen around the world and it would bring youngsters back to the game, he saw the only way to bring the game back to life was with 20/20 cricket; "These kids would never have gotten excited about Test cricket in a million years," he claimed. "I'm not knocking the game; I'm just saying what works today, what will sell today."

In 2008 he made an agreement with Giles Clark and the ECB for England to play against a West Indies XI in the 20/20 for $20 million match, England where only approached after India and Australia both refused his invitation. When the idea was first thought of, people laughed it off. But has Stanford said if players knew they could go to the West Indies, and play a couple of hours of cricket, then leave possibly with $1 million each, who's going to say no? The whole game was covered in controversy, Digicel, the West Indies sponsor at the time, where unhappy that Stanford had granted them minimal sponsorship on the bowlers run ups and the boundary boards, this was eventually resolved and the game proceeded, the less said about the incident with players' partners the better.

In 2009, the ECB and WICB where in talks over a possible sponsorship deal with Stanford, when the news of the fraud scandal broke they immediately ended negotiations; and in February of that year the ECB cancelled all contracts with Stanford. Because of the legal issues now facing Stanford, his 20/20 competition was also scrapped.

The WICB were reluctant to stop the 20/20 competition between the islands, changing the name to the Caribbean 20/20, and tying it in with the 20/20 Champions League which starts two months later. Although Stanford's arrest and conviction hasn't stopped the love of 20/20 cricket in the West Indies, one thing that has had a detrimental effect is the money. He invested a lot of his personal fortune in to cricket in the Caribbean and the WICB have not found a way to replicate that form of income. Some of the great crickets from the Caribbean have been vocal in their disappointment; Andy Roberts is quoted as saying "I was a part of the Stanford set-up for a number of years, and the money he put into West Indies cricket, it's a great loss," Roberts said. "I never knew what he did, and as far as I'm concerned it didn't bother me, because what he did had no [apparent] effect on Antiguans and Antigua. But now he's gone, the country has been suffering for two years, because of the amount of people he employed as a single employer."

Roberts, in his much vocal manner, stated that the many of the current crop of players are not worthy of representing the national team, and are there just for the riches. The legacy that Stanford has left in the Caribbean is one of mixed emotions, while he got the kids enjoying cricket again, he got them enjoying the simple form of the game. West Indies Cricket should be focusing on the longer forms of the game, how I fear that due to the impact of tournaments like the Stanford 20/20 and the Indian Premier League which is shown around the world, youngsters today prefer to play quick cricket. The money that the WICB have lost is bound to have an effect somewhere down the line, and when it does I fear it'll be the start of dark times of Caribbean cricket as a whole.

http://v2journal.com/allen-stanford.html