by Shreyas Bhide
On Saturday, curtains were drawn on the Stanford Super series
initiated by West Indian billionaire Allen Stanford.
Playing in front of an 10,000 plus large and jubilant crowd, the Stanford Superstars, led by Chris Gayle romped home victorious by an astounding margin of 10 wickets.
England never really looked an international team, displaying a poor show of cricket throughout as they were bowled out for a mere 99 in a matter of 19.5 overs. The English team and its body language as a whole looked terribly under prepared for a US$20 million prize money.
Having won the toss, England chose to bat first on a pitch that looked conducive for runs. Having started positively, and amassed 20 runs in 3 overs, England looked set for a huge total, but the dismissal of their openers set the disaster box open and England crumbled to a mere 99. Opener Matt Prior, seemed keen on getting runs as he made a quick fire 12 from 11 balls. But, it was Bell who went first when Jerome Taylor produced a yorker that was fast and straight. Unable to produce a defensive stroke, Bell’s leg stump was was seen flying out of the ground. Two balls after Bell’s dismissal, Prior got one that was on a similar line but of a different length. He attempted a reverse sweep to the fine leg boundary but mistimed the ball onto his stumps. His leg stump too rattled by another marvel of a Taylor delivery. England
were now reeling at 22/2 in just 3.5 overs. These two strikes started a collapse of sorts and England never really recovered.
A pathetic display of batting was compensated only by Samit Patel’s resistance who made a hard fought 22 from 24 deliveries. The only other batsman to reach double figures for England was Collingwood(10).
In reply the Superstars began their innings with a difficult first over by Steve Harmison, but later treated the English bowling disdainfully enough to send England on a leather chase. Openers Chris Gayle and Andre Fletcher made a mockery of the visitors’ complaint about poor lights, pitches and outfield. The final hit came in the form of a massive six by Gayle with almost 7.2 overs still to go. At this point Fletcher’s display of emotion summed it up best when he dropped to his knees mid-pitch head. The prize money was big, in fact the biggest ever in the history of World Cricket. Though the England
and Wales Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board will each
collect US$3.5 million, the English team got nothing while the Stanford Superstars walked away with all the prize money, a whopping total of US$20 million.
Meanwhile in England, criticism of the Stanford series and the English cricket team just doesn’t seem to die down. The fact that Stanford walked into the English dressing room and flirted with the WAG’s of the English players seems to have snowballed into a major controversy.
Allen Stanford was always going to be a part of everything. He named the tournament as well as the WI Superstars team after himself.
The tournament was played at his own personal stadium, he paid out of his own pocket the single richest prize in cricket history, which included a million dollars each for the members of the winning team. It remains to be seen as to how long this private tournament can continue?
