Spectre of Stanford haunts The Oval
As West Indies arrive in England to play two "unwanted" Twenty20 matches, we are reminded of English cricket's "ill-advise" association with Allen Stanford some three years ago, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent .
Siddhartha Talya
25-Feb-2013
As West Indies arrive in England to play two "unwanted" Twenty20 matches, we are reminded of English cricket's "ill-advise" association with Allen Stanford some three years ago, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.
This, then, is the man who was to be one of the saviours of English cricket. How far removed all this is from the summer afternoon in 2008 when Stanford, who owned banks in Antigua and offered financial advice to the super-rich, landed at Lord's in a helicopter to formalise his deal with the ECB. How the ECB must wish it had never happened. Stanford, who had already promoted Twenty20 cricket in the West Indies with some success, had been looking for an inter-national partner for a while. England eventually fell into his arms.
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo