Stanford cash leaves bitter taste

On a day when the UK papers lead with more erosion of the country’s civil liberty, the sports pages ponder whether the ECB has sold its own soul to Allen Stanford, or if the move is the saving of the game.

Martin Williamson

25-Feb-2013

Giles Clarke at the launch of the 20-20 for 20 series, Lord's, June 11, 2008

In The Times, Mike Atherton watched Stanford’s presidential arrival by helicopter at Lord’s.

The key players, Giles Clarke and David Collier, waited at the foot of the steps in obeisance, their hair buffeted by the helicopter's blades. Then there were handshakes all round and even a billionaire's arm around the shoulder for Collier. Rarely have such levels of fawning been seen.

In a beautiful moment, which summed up the contrasting worlds that collided yesterday, Stanford came on to the stage shortly before the press conference. He waved and smiled and was greeted with an unaccustomed silence. As he turned to go backstage, an ECB official hurried over and, in a timid, frigid kind of English way, stuck out a hand. Stanford looked at the hand for a moment and then gave the startled young lad a bear hug. There is a new man in town and, as they say in the US, a whole new ball game.

Angus Fraser in The Independent was not convinced.

It is difficult to work out what was more tacky; the arrival of Sir Allen Stanford and his coterie on the Nursery Ground at Lord's in a private helicopter and the hierarchy of the ECB fawning over him, or the wheeling out of $20m in $50 notes in a plastic crate by a burly security guard at the end of the press conference.

Cricket, like every sport, needs money and publicity and who wouldn't do a bit of shoe shining if a billionaire is handing out a portion of his fortune but, even so, there is something rather unappetising about the whole thing. The matches are authorised but unofficial because of Stanford's desire for his trademark black bats to be used. The MCC, the guardians of the Laws of cricket, will not sanction matches when such kit is present, making the richest game in the history of cricket nothing more than an exhibition match.

In The Guardian, Paul Kelso wrote:

In one of the more unlikely scenes ever played out at Lord's, the billionaire financier and formidable self-publicist arrived in a helicopter bearing his name to be greeted by an England and Wales Cricket Board delegation still barely able to believe its luck at the unforeseen appearance of a willing sugar daddy.

Only two months ago Clarke was facing potential rebellion from a dressing room whose heads had been turned by the inflated wages on offer in the Indian Premier League. With reform of the domestic game bound to be incremental and limited funds to appease the players, Stanford's offer of a series of huge paydays was a godsend.

England

Martin Williamson is executive editor of ESPNcricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa