January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
A new era for Bermuda cricket
But he believes it is now down to the public to ensure his new tournament and ‘world series’ is a success.
The Texan financier made a flying visit to Bermuda yesterday to present $100,000 cheque to the cricket board.
He is investing a total of $28 million in prize money, promotions, player wages and infrastructure improvements for the 19 nations that will compete in his inaugural 20/20 tournament in the summer.
Over the next week he’ll make short stops at all 19 islands to personally present them with the first instalment.
Speaking at a press conference at Grotto Bay during his 30-minute trip to Bermuda yesterday, Stanford said he was inspired by his love of the game and his concern at the demise of West Indian cricket.
And he said that though Bermuda was not geographically part of the region, it shared the same cricketing heritage.
He said he hoped his tournament would become a regular fixture in the cricket calendar — but he was waiting to see the response from the public before committing future funds.
“It’s totally down to the public. If it's a homerun, as they say in baseball, if everybody wants to see it come back, then it will come back.
“It’s a $28 million risk and we'll see what happens. I’ve got 14 of the greatest men that ever played the game behind me so it should be a success.
“I’m looking at this with a long-term view but this year is critical and it is up to the public to buy into it.”
Stanford, who also owns the Sticky Wicket restaurant in Antigua, said cricket was ‘near and dear’ to his heart and he wanted to do something to reverse the decline that has seen the West Indies plummet from the world's best to ‘bottom of the league’.
He said he was aware of the huge financial burden of the West Indies cricket board and wanted to help the sport without getting in the way of what they were doing.
The key to success, he said, was to ensure that cricket was as financially rewarding as other sports.
“We need to get young raw talented individuals back in cricket. We have the best talent in the world, but we have not paid these players commiserate to their success and the sport has not evolved.”
He said cricket had a choice to stay as a ‘dinosaur’ and risk losing potential talent to more lucrative sports, or move like a ‘Ferrari’ into the 21st century and pay it's top athletes similar money.
Citing his entourage of legends, Richie Richardson, Ian Bishop, Andy Roberts and Lance Gibbs, he added: “These individuals played in a golden era of cricket and they were not paid for their skills as they should have been. But this is not the same day and age…It breaks my heart that we have some of the world's best athletes and they are not being treated like that.
“You can't have a professional sport where the players have full time jobs that have nothing to do with the game.”[[In-content Ad]]
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