Football chief blasts Stanford's Twenty20 boost

Austin "Jack" Warner, the president of Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association football (CONCACAF), has criticised the proposed move by Texan millionaire Allen Stanford to pour US$28 million into a regional Twenty20 tournament.

"Stanford is making the biggest mistake of his life because Stanford believes he can save cricket by building at the top. At the top there is nothing to build. What he should have done with his money is invest it in cricket from the bottom, build on the ground, go into youth programmes, go back to the days of the Wes Hall cricket league. (He should) bring coaches from overseas to help train these young cricketers and over time (in) three, four, five, six years, you will build a cadre of cricketers in the region as you have never seen."

Stanford announced on Monday his plans for a regional Twenty20 tournament scheduled for August and September next year, and which is expected to see 17 countries competing for a top prize of US$1 million. The team finishing second will collect US$500,000 with the boards of the top two teams receiving US$200,000 and US$100,000, respectively, to be used for developmental purposes. While there will be US$25,000 for the Man-of-the-Match in every game, that person will claim US$100,000 in the championship game.

Stanford said he had been motivated to undertake the initiative after having witnessed the decline of cricket in the region and hoped the tournament would be "the catalyst for a resurgence of love for the game, that it will signal the return to the glory days of cricket".