The rise of Stanford
Cricinfo
25-Feb-2013
AFP
In an in-depth profile on Allen Stanford, the business magazine Forbes looks at how he became a billionaire, his attempts to revive cricket in the West Indies and foster its growth in the United States. It also lists the controversies that have inevitably followed his success, and the mixed opinion people have of him. A friend calls him "a modern-day Howard Hughes without the weird stuff" while Antigua's prime minister casts him as a modern-day colonialist.
He wants to introduce a TV-friendly version of cricket (called Stanford 20/20) to the U.S. Stanford loves cricket now, but pleasure is only half of the equation here. He stands to bring in around US$10 million selling the international broadcast rights for this year's game, which could draw a global audience of 700 million viewers. He's also hoping to exploit cricket as an international branding tool for his company, Stanford Financial Group.