Cayman’s aspiring Stanford 20/20 players have just been given an extra incentive to do well at the tournament next year. Sir Allen Stanford has offered US$5 million to newly crowned World Twenty20 winners India to face his West Indies select team.
India beat Pakistan by five runs in South Africa on Monday to become inaugural World Twenty20 champs.
Sir Allen wants India to come to the Caribbean and play his Stanford Super Star Team. He said: ‘Since this is the first Twenty20 World Championships and that is the format of our tournament we felt it was fitting to have India come and play our Super Star Team next year. It will be the perfect culmination of our 2008 Stanford 20/20 programme.’
Sir Allen extended the invitation along with the new president of the West Indies Cricket Board, Dr Julian Hunte, while in South Africa with eight West Indies legends; Viv Richards, Michael Holding, Rev Wesley Hall, Lance Gibbs, Richie Richardson, Joel Garner, Desmond Haynes and Courtney Walsh.
The $5m winner-take-all match is scheduled for 29 June at the Stanford Cricket Ground in Antigua. The Super Star Team will be chosen from players in the Stanford 20/20 Regional Tournament running from 25 January to 24 February.
The Stanford 20/20 Programme currently provides millions annually to develop grassroots cricket throughout the Caribbean as well as hosting the richest domestic cricket tournament in the world featuring a US$1m top prize. That means tournament winners will get over $60,000 each.
The Stanford 20/20 Tournament first ran last year with 19 teams competing. There will be 21 next time with Cayman Islands playing St Lucia on 25 January. The Cayman team must be finalized by 1 November.
Sir Allen organised a game between his Super Team and South Africa last year, after it was won by Guyana. But the match, set to take place in November, was cancelled because of a scheduling conflict.
One Caymanian who would love to get his hands on his share of the $5m – roughly $300,000 – is Ainsley Hall, the wicket-keeper/batsman who played in the inaugural tournament. ‘If I perform to the best of my ability I hope to make it into the Super Team,’ Hall, 35, said. ‘I kept wicket well last time and I’m training even harder for this one. Once we get someone guiding and training us for the next tournament, we’ll be okay. We’ve got to get past St Lucia first, which we did before and then we’ll face Trinidad and Tobago. They beat us easily last time but I think we’ll have a good chance because we’ll have better players and they’ll be taking us lightly as underdogs. I’m not thinking about the money at this stage, I just want to put Cayman on the map once more.’
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