Stanford Super Series

Infobox cricket tournament main
tournament name = Stanford Super Series


size = 150px
caption =
country = Flagicon|Antigua and Barbuda Antigua
administrator =
cricket format = Twenty20
first = 2008
last =
tournament format = Round Robin
participants = 4

The Stanford Super Series is a yearly series of Twenty20 cricket matches, sponsored by Sir Allen Stanford. The main game of the Series pits the English national cricket team against an all-star team from the Caribbean, called the Stanford Superstars. The prize money awarded in the tournament is winner-take-all; the players for the winning team in the yearly game take home the majority of the $20 million prize money, the losing players do not earn anything.

Creation

Sir Allen Stanford proposed emphasizing Twenty20 cricket as a way to promote cricket in the West Indies. He created the Stanford 20/20, a yearly tournament featuring teams from the island nations that made up the West Indies.

From the first edition of his tournament in 2006 he aimed to have the best players from his tournament play as a team against an international team. Initially South Africa had been planned to play against the Stanford team for a prize of US$5 million, but that effort fell through after scheduling conflicts with the WICB. In 2008, he looked to expand the tournament, and decided once again to feature a high stakes game featuring the best players in the West Indies versus an international team. Stanford initially wished to invite Sri Lanka, India, Australia and South Africa to come and play a single elimination tournament in Antigua, with the winner of that tournament facing his all-star team. However due to contractual issues with the ICC and ESPN-Star and scheduling contrainsts that tournament was unfeasible and instead Stanford invited the winners of the World Twenty20, India to play for a prize of US$5 million (later US$10 million) and planned to ask Australia to come as a back-up should India decline or be unavailable. India, who were in the process of launching the highly successful first year of the Twenty20 league, the Indian Premier League declined as they did not want to be involved in a privately funded programme. When that deal fell through, Stanford increased the prize money to US$20 million and aimed to get either England or Australia involved. After meeting with the ECB from April through June, Stanford finally signed a five year deal with the England Cricket Board to host a series of US$20 million, winner-take-all matches, worth $100 million in total. In addition to that winner-take-all match, the deal includes an annual Twenty20 quadrangular involving England (as hosts), West Indies and two invitational teams with a prize of US$9.5 million.

Prize Money

The $20 million prize is split as follows: Each of the 11 players on the winning team who play in the championship game will take home $1 million. Another $1 million will be split amongst the players who were selected for the winning team, but did not play in the championship game; $1 million will go to the management team, and the remaining $7 million will be split between the English Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article4720041.ece]

2008 Super Series schedule

All 2008 Super Series matches will take place at the Stanford Cricket Ground in Antigua, and start at 5:30 PM local time (9:30 PM in the United Kingdom).

The schedule was announced as follows:

October 25 Stanford Superstars v Trinidad and Tobago (Stanford 20/20 champions)
October 26 England v Middlesex (English Twenty20 Cup Champions)
October 27 Trinidad and Tobago v Middlesex
October 28 England v Trinidad and Tobago
October 30 Stanford Superstars v Middlesex
October 31 Legends Beach Cricket
November 1 Stanford Superstars v England ($20 million, winner-take all)

All games will be aired on Sky Sports in the UK. [http://www.nothirdman.co.uk/stanford-super-series-schedule.aspx]

quads

2008 Stanford SuperStars

On August 14 2008, the All-Stars selection panel, which was led by cricketing legend Sir Viv Richards, and which included fellow West Indies cricketing luminaries as Sir Everton Weekes, Curtly Ambrose, Lance Gibbs, Richie Richardson, Andy Roberts and Courtney Walsh, announced 17 players who would play under the the Stanford SuperStars colours in the Super Series. [http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/england/stanford/stanford-20-20-superstars-squad-announced,301889,EN.html]

Lionel Baker flagicon|Montserrat

Sulieman Benn flagicon|Barbados

Shivnarine Chanderpaul flagicon|Guyana

Lennox Cush flagicon|Guyana

Rayad Emrit flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago

Andre Fletcher flagicon|Grenada

Chris Gayle flagicon|Jamaica (captain)

Chad Hampson flagicon|Antigua and Barbuda

Lindon James flagicon|Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Sylvester Joseph flagicon|Antigua and Barbuda (vice captain)

Dave Mohammed flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago

Kieron Pollard flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago

Daren Powell flagicon|Jamaica

Ramnaresh Sarwan flagicon|Guyana

Jerome Taylor flagicon|Jamaica

(Dwayne Bravo flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago (injury), and Xavier Marshall flagicon|Jamaica (failed drug test) [http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/westindies/content/current/story/370219.html] were named to the inital team under the initial selection proceedures, but withdrew before the Series was played. Darren Sammy flagicon|Saint Lucia andTravis Dowlin flagicon|Guyana were named to replace them in the squad. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/other_international/west_indies/7561568.stm] )

2008 English Squad

On September 9 2008, three weeks after the Superstars squad was named, the England Cricket Board announced their 15-man roster for the 2008 Super Series. [http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/england/stanford/stanford-super-series-squad,302377,EN.html]

Kevin Pietersen, Hampshire, (captain)

James Anderson, Lancashire

Ian Bell, Warwickshire

Ravi Bopara, Essex

Stuart Broad, Nottinghamshire

Paul Collingwood, Durham

Alastair Cook, Essex

Andrew Flintoff, Lancashire

Stephen Harmison, Durham

Samit Patel, Nottinghamshire

Matt Prior, Sussex

Owais Shah, Middlesex

Graeme Swann, Nottinghamshire

Ryan Sidebottom, Nottinghamshire

Luke Wright, Sussex

2008 Trinidad and Tobago Squad

Rishi Bachan

Samuel Badree

Darren Bravo

Kevon Cooper

Daron Cruickshank

Daren Ganga (captain)

Justin Guillen

Amit Jaggernauth

Richard Kelly

William Perkins

Denesh Ramdin

Ravi Rampaul

Lendl Simmons

Navin Stewart

2008 Middlesex Squad

Neil Carter

Neil Dexter

Steven Finn

Billy Godleman

Tyron Henderson

Ed Joyce

Murali Kartik

Dawid Malan

Eoin Morgan

Tim Murtagh

David Nash

Alan Richardson

Ben Scott

Andrew Strauss

Shaun Udal (captain)

Commercial Dispute

Digicel , who sponsors the West Indies Cricket Board, filed suit to halt the Stanford Super Series. They claimed that due to their deal with the West Indies Cricket Board, that they were due certain advertising and broadcasting rights that weren't being granted to them. The response from the West Indies Board, and from the representatives of the Super Series was that the Stanford Superstars were an unofficial team, and thus the Digicel agreement did not come into play. Digicel won the suit, in front of the High Court in London, England. However, they later reached a deal with Stanford Super Series officials, that allowed the tournament to continue for at least three years. [http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/stanfordtwenty20/content/current/story/373266.html]

References