August 14, 2006 Compliments of the Nation News

Trinidad and Tobago captain Daren Ganga driving to the boundary during his innings last night in the championship match of the inaugural Stanford 20/20 cricket tournament in Antigua. The wicketkeeper is Tyrell Tull of Guyana. (Picture by Randy Brooks.)

by HAYDN GILL In Antigua

AYE AYE SKIPPER! Guyana captain Ramnaresh Sarwan is all smiles Sunday night as he holds aloft the inaugural Stanford 20/20 championship trophy. (Pictures by Randy Brooks.)

THE FUTURE of the Stanford 20/20 Tournament is still up in the air.

And further competitions in this new fast food version of the game could be under the aegis of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

After the success of the inaugural Stanford 20/20 that ended in sensational fashion on Sunday night, tournament creator and financier Allen Stanford said a decision on more competitions was still to be made.

"I will leave that in the hands of a number of people – the legends – who have guided me. They've been a real board making real decisions, taking appropriate and quick action to do things to bring this whole 20/20 tournament into being," Stanford said yesterday after the announcement of a Super Stars Squad to oppose South Africa in a US$5 million winner-take-all contest on November 10.

"It will require a lot of looking back and learning from what we've learnt from this tournament.

"To go to the next level is going take a lot of money, more money than I've put into this initial one-shot injection which is what I said it was going to be to take it to a world-class level."

The inaugural Stanford 20/20 tournament was played here from July 11, involving 19 teams in a single-round elimination format vying for a lucrative first prize of US$1 million.

US$28 million

Stanford pumped US$28 million into the tournament which captured the imagination of all and sundry and attracted packed houses at the Stanford Cricket Ground.

Future tournaments, he said, would require support from all stakeholders.

"It would have to be something that would have to be more compatible with the WICB. We would have to be guaranteed access to the best players and playing in a way that would be at a premium level," Stanford said.

"The answer to the question really is I don't know. I think we will answer that in November.

"A lot of things are up in the air right now and the WICB may want to take this on and they have initiated steps to do so, but my whole purpose was to do this one-off tournament to have a resurgence in excitement in cricket in the West Indies and we have accomplished this."

* haydngill@ nationnews.com

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