Stanford's £400,000 cup bonus - Sport - Evening Standard
       

Stanford's £400,000 cup bonus

American billionaire Allen Stanford is set to reward the winner of Saturday's Twenty20 Cup Final with the chance of a bonus £400,000 payday.

Stanford will ask the victorious team at the Rose Bowl - the semi-finals see Kent play Essex and Durham versus Middlesex - to play against his All Stars XI in Antigua for a £30,000-per-player prize for the winners.

His intervention adds to the pot of the most lucrative set of matches in county cricket history with the two finalists of this year's Twenty20 qualifying for the £2.5million Champions League in September.

The clash with English cricket's top Twenty20 side would be staged as a warm-up game ahead of the All Stars' £10m showdown against England in November.

Stanford is also planning an annual three-nation Twenty20 challenge with England, the West Indies and one invited nation every year from 2009.

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