Should the ECB tell Stanford to stick his dollars up his **** ?

Question

I've had enough of Yanks coming over here and messing with our sports. Cricket was fine as it was, 20/20 cricket is not the be all and end all of the game, just part of it. Stanford thinks test cricket is boring, really! what about american football, cissey rugby for morons. We don't need your superannuated beer matches, so b****r off back to la la land.... Er that's it.

Answer 1

Stanford says he can make T20 the most popular sport in the world by his  big investments

Of course it's a business for him

Also he thinks 50-50 is nearing it's end

   He is trying to help ECB  take on it's rival IPL via his  own league

    I  am not sure how good his league is going to be?

It's for the ECB  to decide,now

Also  many  hi profile leagues can survive simultaneously

But the no. of star players is less thanks to just 10 test playing

countries,so can't say.

Answer 2

ECB is a poor board and they need a rich American guy to support them in order to compete with the cash rich Indian cricket board.

Answer 3

i dont see anything wrong in it

Answer 4

I dont see that happening. ECB has a big ego issue with BCCI coz BCCI are getting more and more powerful and the "dinosaurs" from England can't fairly compete with them coz they aren't as rich as Indians.

Answer 5

Maybe yes. But I doubt if he can do it successfully, 20 million dollars is a LOT of money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (LOL)

I agree with you that American interference has led to a lot of discontent in the English sports scene. Take Liverpool FC for instance, the two owners can't come to terms, one says the chief executive should quit, then does his stupid "fireside chat", Benitez says he understands nothing but wants 30 million pounds to sign Barry and Bentley (not worth it, IMO). Elsewhere in the EPL, fans are priced out of tickets as foreign owners need to pay off the big loans they have taken to buy clubs for self-enrichment.

I don't think "Sir Stanford" (how did an American get knighted?) understands the game in any way except in monetary terms. His idea that 50 over versions of the game needs to be phased out asap is not one that will go down well with people like me who grew up watching an enjoying the 50 over version, and only later understood and appreciated.

I do not agree with you that 50 over cricket is formulaic, okay, maybe it is, but it has not lost any of its charm. For all we know, T20 will soon be, or maybe already has, become formulaic. Follow the link in the source section to see my own view of how tactics will develop/has already developed in T20 (although this answer was made to sell T20 to the skeptical asker, I only managed to convince him that T20 is worth watching because it is/will soon become formulaic and have predictable strategies).

I hardly ever watch a full 100 over game (50 per innings), usually watch the beginning and end of the first innings, and the chase (last 20 overs) of the second. Sponsors and advertisers realize that the 16th to 40th overs in the first innings and the first 30 overs in the 2nd are downtime, nobody watches the game and hence the ads and thus fewer people will buy their products. But shall we let the sponsors/cash injectors strip us of a perfectly good form of cricket just because he cannot make decent enough returns on his investment?

Besides, I thought ICC and the national boards had already sold out broadcasting rights for ODIs until 2015, and the World Cup (50 overs) has already been allocated to the Indian subcontinent (2011), Australia-New Zealand (2015) and UK (2019). Should these events be scrapped because a Texan billionaire said so?

I think by raising the kind of publicity that has been raised by Allen Stanford in the UK will be detrimental to cricket as a whole because more and more young cricketers will want to be great T20 players and lose focus on Test cricket, degenerating the quality of Test matches even if Tests are lucky enough to be spared the gallows. But yes, I am with you in denouncing Stanford's (and every other rich guy's, American or not American), plan of turning the game into "crickentertainment", similar to American sports where singing, dancing and half-time shows are the main offerings and the game itself secondary.

Answer 6

I think you have missed the point mate, Stanford is not trying to change the game here in England, he is just trying to make the game more Global. Stanford has suggested that England play a West Indies all star team in a 5 match series of T20's. This match would raise a lot of interest here in England and it would make a lot of money for Stanford and the ECB. I have no problem with Stanford coming over here and raising the interest in English cricket even more.

Answer 7

Ha Ha Ha. I love hearing about problems in England (im aussie, if u couldn't tell)