Twenty20 television profits to go to WICB - Stanford

Allen Stanford, the Antigua-based billionaire who bankrolls the West Indies domestic Twenty20 competition, has said he would like his investment to be paid back each year by money earned through television rights. But he added that any profits he made in terms of the programme in the Caribbean would go to the West Indies board.

Stanford said his agenda for investing in Twenty20 was different from that of those backing the Indian Premier League and the Indian Cricket League. "Their [IPL and ICL] agenda is totally commercial: to do something to make money for themselves and their investors and so on," Stanford told the Barbados-based Nation.

"My agenda is to, hopefully, recoup the investment, which is very substantial, that I have made and generate a profit down the road, where that road is hopefully shorter than longer for the West Indies cricket programme. I don't need to have this as a reason for me to make my stake in future finances for life. I've already done that."

Stanford said while he would get marketing and branding from such a venture, the huge satisfaction he got from supporting West Indies cricket was paramount.

"It is a lot of fun and I am doing something for a place that I love to be in. Charity is part of it, business is a smaller part of it, but ultimately, business is going to have to make sense here. We are going to have to make some money out of this and that will happen in due course."