Stanford launches his £10m game then says: Test cricket is boring

Allen Stanford landed his helicopter at Lord's yesterday to make instant dollar millionaires of England's cricketers and risked the wrath of traditionalists by declaring: 'I still find Test cricket boring.'

The Texan billionaire arrived on the Nursery Ground in an eye-catching — some would say tacky — way to announce details of cricket's richest-ever match, a $20million (£10.25m) challenge.

England will play the Stanford Super Stars, in effect the West Indies side, on November 1 in Antigua in the first of five annual Twenty20 matches which will earn the winning players $1million each, with an additional $1million to be shared by the rest of the 15-man squad and another $1million among the coaching staff.

Cashed up: Sirs Botham, Richards and Stanford with $20million

A further $7million will be shared by the ECB and the West Indies board but the losers will earn nothing.

Stanford, who arrived with some of the legends of the West Indian game, including Sir Garry Sobers and Sir Viv Richards, said: 'Yes, I think Test cricket is boring but then I'm not a purist. Just look at Lord's.

The pavilion goes back to the 1700s and that's Test cricket but the eye in the sky (the Media Centre), that's the future. Test cricket is the foundation of the game, that's where cricket came from, but Twenty20 cricket is the future. That's where the money is.'

The deal was the culmination of weeks of negotiations which saw England's centrally-contracted players who do not play limited overs matches, like Test captain Michael Vaughan, unsuccessfully seeking a slice of the action.

These are amazing times, indeed, for the game and it was possibly only the roar of the helicopter rotors that drowned out the sound of Colin Cowdrey and Jack Hobbs, the epitome of English cricket's traditional values, turning in their graves.

There is little doubt that Stanford would not have been welcomed so readily into the heart of English cricket had it not been for the extraordinary world developments over the last year, focused on India, which have changed the face of the game.

Three years ago Stanford started pumping money into West Indian cricket with the formation of his own Twenty20 competition but only since India woke up to the endless financial possibilities of the short form has he emerged as a significant player.

It has taken weeks of negotiations between Stanford, the ECB and the Professional Cricketers' Association to reach yesterday's stage where the arrival of Stanford in a helicopter was matched for tackiness only by the 'unveiling' of a box apparently containing $20million (£10.25m).

The five games staged annually will be winner takes almost all, as revealed in Sportsmail yesterday, and they will be played with silver stumps and his own trademark black bats, which contravene new legislation laid down by the MCC, the guardians of cricket's laws.

'The MCC came to their senses just in time,' smiled Stanford.

Apparently, the Stanford matches will be unofficial but authorised by the ICC.

The most intriguing figure on the stage at Lord's during a sleek presentation, sitting alongside Sir Ian Botham and Sir Viv Richards, was England coach Peter Moores, who suddenly finds himself not only having to decide whether England players can go to the Indian Premier League for 10 days next April but also picking which ones will have the chance to become rich overnight.

This probably was not in the brochure when he took the job from Duncan Fletcher.

There was no suggestion that any non-Twenty20 playing Ashes winning heroes, like Vaughan, might be included to take their slice of the pie. 'You pick the best team to win the game,' said Moores.

'And you do that fairly and honestly. There will be no guarantees to anyone and selection can never be sentimental.'

This is only the start. Soon to be announced will be the annual four-nation Stanford Challenge at Lord's, starting next year, which will take place for the first year between England, the West Indies and probably New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

Then, in all probability, there will be a Stanford team in the English Premier League when it is created in 2010. We truly have not seen anything yet.