Stanford 2020 for $20 Million

[Simbazz]

To be honest, i've no interest in the "series," whatsoever. The ECB have sold out and gone to the West Indies for a pot of money, which is totally against Crickets soul.

Cricket isn't like Soccer! Never should be, Cricketers play Cricket for the love of the game, getting paid better than C1's,C2's and D's in the economical scale, but not earning as much as top doctors. Lots of these Cricketers know a subject such as law, so would be better off going to work in that area for the money BUT they don't! That is why its so differnt to Football, Football has many players who play for money, and not for the love of the game or club.

 

[Skater]

I am surprised by all of the criticism really. The newspapers are calling the series every name under the sun, but only I think because they were so much against it when it was announced - they won't admit that this isn't as bad as they thought now because they are scared of being hypocritical.

The quality of the cricket has been good. Each team has some fine players, no one has been thrashed (the biggest margin has been 22 runs), it has been really tense and there has clearly been some passion in it. The floodlights might be too close to the ground, affecting catches, but the catching improved in the last two games and that was the whole idea of the warm ups, to get used to the conditions.

If you forget about the money, there has been good quality cricket, plenty of tension, played in front of partizan crowds at a beautiful ground on a beautiful island, perfectly timed for UK audiences. It isn't that bad!

 

[Sureshot]

That's because they are a business.

And like every other business, its up to the investor or potential investor to find out what they are investing in! 20/20 matches are being played on that ground for 2 years now, they could have seen that the lights were not conducive to play and maybe ask for additional lights, the guy is a billionaire for God sake, he could have easily got that fixed!

You took that part of my post completely out of context, it had no relation to the floodlights.

And you guys makes it appear like Stanford was holding a gun to Prior wife's head, or any of the others for that matter, they were not being forced, they seems to be relishing in the moment, Matt should be pissed with his wife, not the playboy billionaire.

So as long as they enjoyed it Stanford did nothing wrong? It was completely unprofessional by Stanford and his actions were completely indefensible.

 

[MUFC1987]

Seems like even billions can't buy you a decent groundsman.

 

[irottev]

I take this back. This tournament is a ridiculous, money grabbing farce.

 

[Will_NA]

Haha, you do like having a little snipe at England whenever you can.

 

[evertonfan]

True. The matches have been ruined by having such a slow pitch. I thought the original idea of T20 was to have more boundaries and easier scoring?

 

[MUFC1987]

But then, who'd want to watch New Zealand play? I mean it's hard enough finding a crowd at home right?

$20M on the line and you get a delivery like that though. I'd be spewing if it happened on Saturday as a player.

 

[irottev]

I love it. But seriously, it's pretty easy to when you see stuff like this happen.

I guess my point is in all this, you guys say there's problems with lights and pitches etc. The ECB didn't go and examine these before the tournament. Because they didn't care about it. They just wanted their money didn't they. So why kick up a stink about that now? It's a private ground thing. You'd think they'd check it out first. And even if conditions were bad, they'd have done it anyway because of the money.

 

[Pakistani Army]

Yes but the thing is with the slow pitch there have been some very interesting matches.

 

[irottev]

See, too much Twenty/20 is ruining the game for me. All this bad press isn't good. I'm disgusted all-round. I don't like the idea of this tournament. More money in the game you'd think was good but it's turning into greed and with IPL's, ICL's cricketers will start to find ways to make as much money as they can for their talents as opposed to represent their country.

I mean, players can retire from tests and just focus on playing ODIs/Twenty/20's. Considering they get paid more for playing a 40 over game where their performance doesn't matter then they get paid to play 5 days straight in a test match with pressure on them to perform is absurd.

(I take some of my comments back, I was trolling and it wasn't fair. Sorry guys)

 

[Will_NA]

Same here, never liked it from the start. Only thing that appealed to me was that it would keep our players from joining the IPL. Or so I thought...

 

[King Pietersen]

I love it. But seriously, it's pretty easy to when you see stuff like this happen.

I guess my point is in all this, you guys say there's problems with lights and pitches etc. The ECB didn't go and examine these before the tournament. Because they didn't care about it. They just wanted their money didn't they. So why kick up a stink about that now? It's a private ground thing. You'd think they'd check it out first. And even if conditions were bad, they'd have done it anyway because of the money.

Even if the ECB had gone to look at the pitch, what could they have done about it? Concerns were raised from the first day. Even if the ECB had complained about the pitch when they arrived, the majority of the touring party didn't arrive in Antigua until the day before the opening game of the tournament. The same can be said for the Floodlights, what could Stanford have done about it, 1 day before the first game, and it's not only England who are moaning about the pitch and floodlights, everyone is.

 

[MUFC1987]

The superstars look in good shape really. We all know Gayle, Chanderpaul and Sarwan are capable, so seeing the likes of Fletcher doing well also, is ominous.

 

[WestIndian]

Wow I love what is going on in here guys, England v NZ great stuff from all. But come Saturday, we the SS will be no walk over and the lights good or bad will be for all. By now they (England) should be use to it. And I read where someone mentioned that everyone is moaning about the lights, I did not hear or read this anywhere, so please enlighten me.