By PAUL NEWMAN

County cricketers could be handed their biggest pay day when the winning team from Saturday's Twenty20 finals day are invited to share in the Stanford bonanza in Antigua.

Allen Stanford, who will stage cricket's richest match when England play his All Stars team on November 1 for a £10million prize, will announce tomorrow that the stakes at the showpiece finals day at the Rose Bowl are about to be considerably raised.

Revolutionising the game: Sir Allen Stanford

Stanford will ask whoever emerges victorious from Kent, Essex, Durham or Middlesex on Saturday to take on his All Stars team in one of a number of warm-up matches in Antigua in the days leading up to the main event.

He will offer each member of the team around £30,000 for their 40 overs work - but only if they win. The move reflects the continued uncertainty about whether the inaugural Champions League, due to include the two finalists from Saturday, will take place.

The Indian board, who are scheduled to stage the tournament, are still insisting that any county which includes players who have played in the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League will be excluded, which has forced the ECB to look for alternative rewards.

If Essex and Middlesex win through to Saturday's final they would both be free to play in the Champions League as neither include any ICL players but Durham and Kent are both implicated.

Instead of continuing the fight with India, the ECB may well turn their backs on the venture and instead look to their new American friend.

Stanford, a Texan billionaire now based in Antigua, will also confirm at the Rose Bowl tomorrow details of the annual three-nation Twenty20 challenge that he will bankroll at Lord's each year from 2009. England and the West Indies are going to be regular participants, with another country invited each year.

The ever-expanding Twenty20 revolution will also see a Stanford team compete annually as one of two overseas outfits in the English Premier League which starts in 2010.