Clarke reveals big-money offers

Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, has revealed that there have been three offers to play England in one-off Twenty20 matches worth US$20million after the collapse of the Allen Stanford deal.

"I was staggered [by the offers]," Clarke told the Press Association. "But we've got a very crowded calendar and we need to look at those types of proposals - there are serious issues about whether we should be playing individual games for very large sums of money.

"There's a strong debate about it so I don't think it's something the board would view with much favour."

England played a Stanford All Stars XI in Antigua on November 1 for a winner-takes-all purse and were crushed by 10 wickets as Chris Gayle's team went away with the money. The week was marred by a poor attitude from the England team and strong criticism of the event.

Then, in February, while England were touring West Indies for the Test series it was revealed that Stanford was being investigated for suspected fraud and all his assets were frozen. The ECB severed all ties with Stanford, which included plans for a quadrangular event at Lord's this summer.

The ECB were strongly criticised in some quarters for their association with Stanford. The US$20million match was launched by him landing a helicopter on the Nursery Ground at Lord's.