England and Windies to play winner takes all games

[Leicester Fox]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7448467.stm
A very glitzy opening on skysports news, Allen Stanford flew into lords on his helicopter and they had 10 million there It will be the richest game ever apparently, 5 matches winner takes all. Now we'll see how the players play when they really do care! They get 500k each and the rest of the squad and coaches share 1 million. I think the players agreed because it's very likely you're going to win 1 of the 5 games so it's got to be worth it and the rest of the money being shared between the squad should stop everyone getting to upset.

But Stanford said he found test cricket boring which upset me.

 

[Cricketman]

How rich is this guy?

And he's an American, could he be the link to bringing cricket to the US?

 

[.Mob]

Wow, this is even worse than the IPL. Money fests everywhere.

 

[Leicester Fox]

He's worth 2 billion apparently. He's more interested in the West Indies than in the US though, has citizenship there.

 

[sohum]

Posted via Mobile Device
Certainly got a ton of money, that guy. Too bad almost no one is going to be watching.

 

[King Pietersen]

I don't think his money will ever have a positive effect on the game of cricket. He's only interested in Twenty20, he's not a proper cricket fan, well he's not a purist cricket fan anyway. Test Cricket should be the focus, not Twenty20, I enjoy the Twenty20 game, but it's just going to become more popular than the Test arena which is something that no real cricket fan wants. The cricketing world bodies need to do something to address it before the game is ruined.

 

[Master Khan]

there is to much Twenty20 now
I kinda miss the 50 overs games

 

[smssia0112]

The overkill seems to finally be sinking in to even the T20 fanatics now. I'm hoping the revolution will die down, but with all this money it will certainly keep the players interested! Let's hope that test and even ODI won't be given the backseat in the future.

 

[manee]

And he's an American, could he be the link to bringing cricket to the US?

Although he wishes to reverse the decline of cricket in the West Indies, his main aim is to make money in a medium-long term basis and any sort of profit to be made out of USA cricket is certainly not medium term, or long term but rather very long term (in a best case scenario) and wholly unreliable that it will take in such a volatile market.

manee added 3 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

The overkill seems to finally be sinking in to even the T20 fanatics now. I'm hoping the revolution will die down, but with all this money it will certainly keep the players interested! Let's hope that test and even ODI won't be given the backseat in the future.

I believe that media coverage plays a large part in the overkill. In reality, the IPL started in early 2008 with all the hype and build up which is why by the end, everybody was sick of it. This Stanford match is on November 1, which is ages away, and yet it is hyped already - no wonder there is saturation, one game/tournament can take up the entire cricketing media!

 

[angryangy]

Hopefully the hype comes good for the Caribbean and encourages the grass roots game.

 

[shravi]

Stop! Just stop! I've had enough of T20 for one year :crying. :help.

 

[Will_NA]

Bumble raised a good point when he asked why Twenty/20 players who would never make it into the Test team should earn shedloads more than England's top players including England captain, Michael Vaughan?

 

[shravi]

Bumble raised a good point when he asked why Twenty/20 players who would never make it into the Test team should earn shedloads more than England's top players including England captain, Michael Vaughan?

Hmm, he raises a very valid point. T20 shouldn't hog the limelight and unfortunately, I see that happening unless some drastic measures are taken.

Do you have the actual figures to show the difference in the amount they make in comparison with the test players?

 

[Will_NA]

I think he said players would be earning 30k for the ODI series. Obviously, I'm not a reliable source but he did mention that figure.

 

[sohum]

Bumble raised a good point when he asked why Twenty/20 players who would never make it into the Test team should earn shedloads more than England's top players including England captain, Michael Vaughan?

Why does an employee at Microsoft get paid more than an employee at your local software company? Because his employer makes more money. Twenty20 makes money quickly. The only way to stop the Twenty20 machine is to stop going to the games--so if you don't want them to proliferate, don't go, and tell your friends not to go as well.

Speaking out of two sides of one's mouth will not help Test cricket.