| A Texas billionaire is sponsoring the richest winner-take-all $19.6 million purse for a Twenty20 match between England and the West Indies All Stars.
Allen Stanford, chairman of Stanford Financial Group, who runs his own Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean, will fund the prize money and traveling expenses for a one-off match every November over the next five years. The 11 players on the winning team stand to collect $1 million each for less than three hours of work. At a dramatic press conference, during which a crate containing millions of dollars was unveiled on stage, Stanford, “It is one night, winner-takes-all 20 million dollars. The winner goes home happy, the loser goes home unhappy.” The prize pool is by far the greatest in cricket history. The Indian Premier League’s purse is $1.2 million and the rebel Indian Cricket League has a purse of $3.85 million. The prize pool for the Twenty20 world championship, which India won in 2007, is $1.9 million. |