For a fistful of dollars

ANOTHER great English sporting saga ensues with the once highly-respected sport of cricket tumbling into turmoil.

Perhaps the ECB (England Cricket Board) should have gone for LBW - that is ‘Logic Before Wallet’ .

Anyway, let’s start with the more straightforward matters. England’s tour of the West Indies has, thus far, been a complete farce.

A Test match abandoned because bowlers were sinking into the quicksand is ridiculous enough.

But the third Test venue in Antigua was even more hastily prepared, and despite offering batsmen one of the flattest pitches in the world, it is still a shambles as the scars from the venue’s footballing days ruin the wicket.

Still, a return to the Caribbean for another round of 20/20 action later this year looks as unlikely as a change of pace in a Monty Panesar over.

Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire is currently having his assets frozen in the USA and our 21st century Kerry Packer seems to be in a spot of bother.

The allegation is that he has made around £5.6billion out of his apparent wrong-doings which were described as having “tentacles throughout the world.”

One of those ‘tentacles’ is tightly secured around the neck of the ECB, who must surely answer questions as to how they got involved with a shady character like Stanford in the first place.

I have written about Sir Allen here before, and praised him for his innovation and attempted rejuvenation of cricket, sprucing it up for a newer, younger, more vibrant yet less discerning sports fan.

But if these aims are to be achieved using ill-gotten gains, then nobody involved in the sport should go near his billions with a barge pole.

Those members of the ECB who sanctioned such a connection with Stanford deserve to get their note-counting fingers burnt.

Giles Clarke, the ECB Chairman has stood firm in all of this and insists that the ECB were in no way to blame. This despite the Stanford link being given the green light only after a 10-day investigation into his affairs. That report only looked into whether he could meet the financial agreement. Crucially, it didn’t look into HOW he might.

Those stacks of bucks must have blinded the ECB from looking at just who was putting the money up. They didn’t apply common-sense to a big deal, both financially and historically for cricket. Instead they thought of their bank balance.

As the case over in the States against Stanford is likely to rumble on for months, so is the debate about just why the ECB got entangled in this mess in the first place.

The answer is horribly simple: For a fistful of dollars.