|
|
A cricket showdown in the Caribbean
A cool £20 millon prize will be claimed by the winner, unwittingly helping Sir Allen Stanford expand his business empire
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Sir Allen Stanford has offered a £20 millon prize in the winner-takes-all cricket showdown in the Caribbean on November 1st, 2008.
|
  |
It is the first of five such annual matches – each to be played in Antigua between England and Sir Allen's collection of West Indies "Super Stars". For the England team the matches offer the chance for financial security. Sir Allen sees it as a chance to expand his business empire. He controls the Stanford Financial Group, a $50 billion global wealth management company originally started by his grandfather. Today he has clients in 136 countries and Sir Allen, born in Texas in 1950, is one of America's richest men.
He has been in the Caribbean for the past 20 years and he holds Antiguan nationality. He lives alone on a private island there, and the match will be played on Antigua's national day. He employs Antigua's most famous son, Sir Vivian Richards, to help him run his existing cricket tournament in the Caribbean. Cricket, he says, is television-friendly and he has already spent many millions building the Stanford 20/20 – a competition involving 20 Caribbean islands and culminating in a final where the winners are presented with a $1 million cheque. The matches are played at his private grounds, and US standards of service are implemented. The stewards call you sir and guide supporters to their seats.
|
The Stanford name is omnipresent – kids line up for free Stanford tattoos, munch on a Stanford burger and wave their inflatable Stanford bats. He alone controls the television rights to the England matches, which will be sold globally and will create huge interest in that temple of cricket, India, which has so far been able to resist the Stanford name (this guy is not used to being told he is not wanted). But he does believe he can sell Twenty20 to America.
He adopted Fort Collins, an average in the Rocky Mountains and spent millions promoting his last Stanford tournament in there. It worked. Now he intends to roll the project out to bigger cities next year where television audiences will almost certainly be subjected to just one advert – that for the Stanford empire. www.stanfordfinancial.com/sir_allen
Sign up for Confidential Newsletter
Send this article to a friend
View other News & Events Articles
|
| |   | | Taste of Cape TownThe Mount Nelson (photo) is taking part in Taste of Cape Town, which takes place in the ... more
|
| | | | |
|
| | | | Sign up for the Free WOW Confidential Newsletter |  |
Advertisement | |
BACK
