Barmy Army shun Stanford

The Barmy Army, who usually shadow England on tour by the hundreds, have confirmed that just three of their loyal fans will be cheering on England in next week's Stanford 20/20 for 20 in Antigua.

The matches culminate in a winner-takes-all cash cow which promises to net the victors US$20 million (£11.5 million), by far the biggest prize in the history of the game. But the Barmy Army - famed for their unquenchable optimism for England, particularly when results have been scarce - have turned their backs on the tournament.

"As far as we know, only three people are going who we'd term Barmy Army," Paul Winslow, a spokesman for the organisation, told PA. "It's not a huge attraction for the Barmy Army for several reasons; the main one being that we are Test match purists. Although we will watch Twenty20 cricket, going out of our way to watch it is not something many people are interested in.

"It was very short notice and for most people their attentions were already focused on the [England tour to the] Caribbean next year and obviously we have a tour of India this year. The amount of money people have is finite and those two tours had been earmarked already, especially the West Indies one as that is a really popular Barmy Army tour."

Winslow believed people would rather spend money going to the West Indies for a Test match rather than a Twenty20 match. "I think, personally, that maybe they are over-egging it a bit. Twenty20 competitions seem to be here there and everywhere. The more you have, the more saturated they become.

"The ironic thing about the Barmy Army is that we have a reputation of being loud at cricket matches and people assume that we like Twenty20 games, whereas most of us actually actively dislike it because we favour Test cricket."