January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Cricketers up for $1 M prize
Antiguan businessman Allen Stanford is putting up $28 million for a Twenty/20 tournament featuring 17 Caribbean nations, including Bermuda.
Stanford is going to give each country $100,000 up front to improve their facilities and buy equipment and then give an additional $10,000 a month as stipend for coaches, players and $5,000 a month for maintenance for the upkeep of equipment and grounds.
Stanford will also be hiring two full time nutritionists and four professional athletic trainers to travel around the region regularly in order to train the teams and assist them wherever needed.
Cann said: “I think this is great. This is a good competition for us to be involved in.”
He said: “With us qualifying for the World Cup this allows us to qualify for good benefits and good rewards. This guy is throwing some outrageous money out there.”
Cann said that this tournament stands to pad the national team’s cricket budget. “Any extra money a programme can get is good for cricket in Bermuda.”
The other nations involved include Bahamas, Cayman Islands, St. Maarten, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago.
Stanford said in a press conference on Monday: “I have been a part of the Caribbean community for over 20 years and I have witnessed first hand the power that the game of cricket wields over the people in this region. West Indies cricket is an almost tangible force, which can unify an entire country, an entire group of people, no matter the differences that might exist off the field.
“My vision for the Stanford Twenty/20 tournament is that it will be the catalyst for a resurgence of love for the game, that it will signal the return to the glory days of cricket. I want to create a professional super league where West Indian cricketers can do what they do best, playing with their fellow countrymen and against their Caribbean counterparts and be rewarded for excellence,” said Stanford.[[In-content Ad]]
Comments:
You must login to comment.