Stanford resumes regional funding

Stanford Twenty20, bankrolled by Allen Stanford, the Antigua-based billionaire, has resumed developmental funding for regional cricket boards in the West Indies. Funding had stopped earlier this year, after Stanford wasn't impressed with the accountability of the respective boards.

After meeting with the chief executives of the regional boards, it was decided that the sum of $15000 would be paid per month for development purposes. Forbes Persaud, the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) chief executive, said he was happy that funding had resumed and stressed the TTCB intended to make full use of what was on offer.

"We at the TTCB are very happy for whatever funding we receive to assist with our running of the cricket. To run cricket is very expensive and we are very grateful for the help from Stanford," Persaud told Caribbean Media Corporation. "We have a number of development programmes that we think are essential to our cricketers and which have been working for us and we intend to use this contribution to assist in that way."

Stanford Twenty20 also indicated that the US$15,000 sum needed to be used up each month, as there would be no rolling over to the next month.

This has brought some concerns from the boards, as some indicated that in certain months of the year their development programmes would carry them over the prescribed mark while in other months, the cost would be less.