Over to Twenty/20

Have you heard of a $ 24.5 million prize money cricket carnival which could be happening next year, again in the West Indies? Just to give you an indication of the magnitude of that amount, the winner in this current World Cup will go home with just 3 million dollars. So, thats more than eight times!!

Antigua based American billionaire, Allen Stanford plans to stage an International Twenty/20 Cup next year - and if the past is any indication, it will be anything but similar to the current insipid affair going on in the West Indies. And, unlike Subhash Chandra in India, who is making similar noises, the Texan Billionaire is not completely new to the arena. In fact, he is well entrenched and successfully so, and Stanford has also shown that he has the financial muscle to pull it off.

Only last year, Stanford ploughed in 34 million dollars into a very successful Twenty/20 tournament involving 19 Caribbean nations. The series introduced black bats, orange balls and most importantly it pulled thousands of fans into the stadiums - as the entrance was free.

With the first Twenty/20 World Cup happening this year in South Africa, reluctant entrants to this concept like India also introducing a national Twenty/20 championship and Chandra & Stanford throwing their cash-rich hats into the ring, Cricket might be standing at the threshold of another revolution. The empty stadiums in West Indies, even for key World Cup matches and the overall drop in enthusiasm amongst fans in the middle of cricket's biggest show might just be the catalyst Twenty/20 was looking for.

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Texan Billionaire Allen Stanford doesn't seem to have the best of relationships with Antigua Prime Minister Baldwin Specner, who has thinks Stanford is "haughty, arrogant and obnoxiously behaved". In the past, there has also been some controversy over how Mr. Stanford came to acquire a citizenship of Antigua & Barbuda. However it's not all that bad. The billionaire head of Houstan based Stanford Financial Group was last year appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of the Nation , and he is the first American to be Knighted by Antigua 7 Barbuda. He has a dual citizenship, being a citizen of Texas, United States as well.