ICC gives lukewarm response to Stanford's Twenty20 tournament

Dubai, July 9 (UNI) The International Cricket Council (ICC) today gave a lukewarm response to the proposal from the Texan billionaire, Allen Stanford, who hopes to host a 23 million dollar Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies next year.

''Our members have raised genuine concerns about the concept and have asked ICC to act as an intermediary and help manage discussions between Mr Stanford and the potential host of the matches, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB),'' ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said in a statement.

''The members recognise the potential benefits of the tournament for the development of cricket in the West Indies. At the same time they wish to ensure that their participation in any event such as this will benefit as many of the game's stakeholders as possible to help facilitate its continuing strong growth,'' Speed added.

Australian media yesterday reported that Stanford had approached Cricket Australia for a week-long Twenty20 knockout also involving India, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

The winners would then take on the Stanford Super Stars, a West Indian XI consisting of the best players in the inter-island domestic Twenty20 tournament.

The West Indies board met the ICC last week to discuss the event and the issues of payment and the countries involved.

Cricket Australia had also said it would consider the proposal subject to ICC approval, although today's statement from the governing body gave the impression that the WICB was less enthusiastic with the concept.

According to the ICC's Future Tours Programme, as laid out in the recent ICC executive meeting in London, each country may play a maximum of seven Twenty20 fixtures per year, and two in any one series.

''The ICC is keen to ensure any tournament is, wherever possible, consistent with the aims of the current Future Tours Program in terms of both player workload and the existing cap on Twenty20 internationals. Our members also wish to ensure any arrangement is consistent with the ICC's ongoing broadcasting agreement with ESPN STAR Sports governing multi-team events.'' ''The key is to achieve a result that is in the best interests of the game as a whole and to that end, discussions will continue ahead of the ICC board's next meeting, set to take place in Dubai in late October,'' the statement added.

Stanford's original inter-island tournament last year was a massive success, raising cricket's profile in the West Indies.

UNI