The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : England rejects offers for T20 $20m matches

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England rejects offers for T20 $20m matches

LONDON: England has rejected three offers worth $20 million each for one-off games due to concerns about accepting cash windfalls, prompted by the fiasco involving Allen Stanford’s short-lived series.

Giles Clarke, Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, said he had been “staggered” by the offers that had been made since the collapse of the organisation’s five-year $100 million-deal with Stanford.

The Texan tycoon’s assets have been frozen since February while he is under investigation for alleged fraud in the United States.

One of the offers the ECB rejected is thought to have come from the Middle East.

“We’ve got a very crowded calendar and we need to look at those types of proposals — there are serious issues about whether we should be playing individual games for very large sums of money,” Clarke said. “There’s a strong debate about it, so I don’t think it’s something the board would view with much favour.”

The ECB signed a deal with Stanford in June last year for five winner-take-all $20 million Twenty20 games between England and a West Indies all-star XI with a prize fund of $20 million to be awarded to the winner.

England lost heavily to the local side in the only match played last November and the players were unhappy that Stanford was filmed socialising with their wives and girlfriends.

The ECB severed ties with Stanford after the fraud investigation was revealed by the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission. — AP

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