Sir Allen Stanford and the ECB - where did it all go wrong?

02.23.2009 | 10:02 am | gambling

The sport of cricket is just one of the many casualties from the US investigation into the affairs of Sir Allen Stanford and his highly influential Stanford Group. This is the billionaire businessman who is behind the 20/20 cricket tournament which saw an England eleven take on an all-star eleven with each winning player guaranteed $1 million in prize money. As it happens the England cricket team collapsed dramatically and were totally outgunned by the Allen Stanford all-star select team. So what does this mean for cricket?

The 20/20 tournament was only the tip of the iceberg with the ECB signing a lucrative sponsorship agreement with the Stanford Group which they claimed would see substantial investment into British grassroots cricket. There have been rumours that a number of cricketing associations around the world refused to sign up to any sponsorship deals with the Stanford Group and this has placed serious pressure on the ECB and leading lights in this association.

The bottom line is that English cricket has been somewhat left behind by the Indian Premier League (IPL) which continues to attract the best players in the world, the largest sponsorships and the largest worldwide media coverage. Indeed the ECB themselves were recently forced to allow contracted England cricket players to participate in the IPL in between matches, something which again attracted severe criticism from many parts of the sport.

While the ongoing investigation into Sir Allen Stanford’s business operations continue it was announced that all ECB and English cricket related agreements have been terminated although the aftermath looks as though it could carry on for some time yet. While charges have been laid against Sir Allen Stanford and his business group nothing has yet been proven although there are suggestions that the US authorities are investigating an alleged multi-billion investment programme.