Stanford Super Series spot raises stakes for get-rich-quick hopefuls

Forget what used to be the ultimate prize for a county cricketer, the Championship. Forget, also, the old showpiece end of season 50-over final.

Today's Twenty20 finals day is the biggest occasion of the domestic season, the title that will unlock the door to a myriad career-changing possibilities for players who are still getting used to the glare of the spotlight.

Up for the Cup: Kent, aiming to retain the trophy, celebrate last year's win at Edgbaston

It was apt that Allen Stanford's entourage - the big man himself was absent attending to business in America - should choose the Rose Bowl yesterday to confirm that today's winning county will be taking part in the 'Stanford Super Series' of matches in Antigua in October which will culminate with the richest game in cricket history.

Rod Bransgrove's purpose-built stadium staged the first-ever Twenty20 game, between Hampshire and Sussex, just five years ago to a chorus of 'it'll never last' from the doubters after a little-known ECB administrator called Stuart Robertson had proposed a new, compact competition to boost county coffers.

Little did Robertson, now working for Hampshire and an interested observer at the Rose Bowl yesterday, know that he was creating a monster which is taking over the cricketing world.

The players of Kent, Essex, Durham and Middlesex will not be worrying today about the long-term implications of the Twenty20 revolution.

For cricketers like Graham Napier and Dawid Malan, barely known outside the cosy world of county cricket before this season, today is another chance for them to make new lives for themselves, to earn money and plaudits that they would have deemed, until a few weeks ago, utterly beyond them.

Kevin Pietersen joins in the 20:20 fun on Friday

Rob Key, captain of defending champions Kent, has been round the block a few times but even a man who has scored a Test double century for England is caught up in the excitement of an occasion that will today provide 11 hours of cricketing mayhem.

'This is cricket's big day out now, unquestionably,' said Key as he prepared to lead his side in the first semi-final against Essex. 'The worst thing has been the waiting this week for Saturday to come but now it is almost here we are ready to go.

'What we will have at the Rose Bowl is four counties playing in a highly charged atmosphere in front of a crowd who will get more noisy as the day goes on. It all comes thick and fast but the danger, particularly if you are in the first semifinal, is that it can pass you by before you know it. We have got to make sure our day is not over by 3pm.'

The added incentive of being part of the Stanford week in Antigua and the ECB's confidence that a solution will be found to the disputes with the Indian board over a Twenty20 Champions League makes today the most important, and certainly the most lucrative, of the six finals days.

Today's winners - Durham meet Middlesex in the second semi-final with the final following almost immediately tonight - will play the England team in a warm-up game in Antigua on October 26 and then, the next day, face Trinidad & Tobago, the Stanford T20 champions, for a prize totalling £150,000.

And the two finalists will be invited to the Champions League in Dubai or Abu Dhabi in October with the chance to win up to £2.4million providing a compromise over the participation of 'rebel' Indian Cricket League players and the distribution of generated revenue is reached with India.

England fans enjoy the 2007 20:20 Cup final

Small beer, perhaps, when compared to the £10m challenge at the end of the Antigua week on November 1 between England and the Stanford Superstars but big enough pay days, and big enough occasions, to provide county cricketers with a huge extra incentive.Today's winners, after all, will 'only' receive £42,000 in prize money.

Key said his team had not had time to digest the figures but that the opportunity to play England, in particular, was a 'fantastic' idea and one that would allow the county players who have made domestic names for themselves this year to prove that they can do it against international bowling.

'We have seen people like Graham Napier and Joe Denly hitting the ball out of the ground this year but the selectors do not know for sure if they could do it at the highest level,' said Key.

'What better than seeing if they can do it against the England bowlers. The more big occasions like today we have the more chances players will have to prove they have the temperament to thrive on the big occasion.

'I'd like to see us having the chance to play Twenty20 games against the tourists too. Let's see if Denly can do it against Morne Morkel.'

For now Denly has to worry about the Essex bowling, led by Danish Kaneria, before Steve Harmison has the chance to show that he is truly rejuvenated when he leads the Durham attack against Middlesex.

History is against Kent because no winning side from the first semifinal has gone on to win the final and no defending champions have yet won two Twenty20 titles in a row.

With Key at the helm, I believe that record will change and Kent will beat Durham in the final.

TV: live Sky Sports 1, 11.0am (Final: 7.15pm).