2008 Stanford Super Series

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2008 Stanford Super Series
Administrator(s)	West Indies Cricket Board and Allen Stanford
Cricket format	Twenty20
Tournament format(s)	One off match with warmup matches
Host	Antigua and Barbuda
Champions	Stanford Superstars
Participants	4
Matches played	6
Most runs	Andre Fletcher (147)
Most wickets	Sherwin Ganga (6)
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The 2008 Stanford Super Series was a cricket tournament sponsored by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford. The tournament was played between 25 October-1 November comprising of 5 warm-up matches and a $US 20 million for the grand finale. This final match was played between the Stanford Superstars and England. Before it began, the tournament was threatened with cancellation due to a row between Digicel, the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) main sponsor, and Stanford. Digicel argued that it should get sponsorship rights because it is WICB's sponsorship rights holder and that the tournament was officially sanctioned by the WICB.

All 2008 Super Series matches took place at the Stanford Cricket Ground in Antigua, and started at 5:30 p.m. local time (9:30 p.m. in the United Kingdom). All games were aired on Sky Sports in the UK. ^[1]

Contents 1 Qualification 2 Summary 3 Matches 3.1 Exhibition Matches 3.2 Champions Cup 3.3 $20 million match 4 Squads 4.1 2008 Stanford SuperStars 4.2 2008 English Squad 4.3 2008 Trinidad and Tobago Squad 4.4 2008 Middlesex Squad 5 Commercial dispute 6 External links 7 References

[edit] Qualification

The Stanford Superstars was a squad selected from the best players in the Stanford 20/20 competition. England competed in the first year of a five year contract to be involved in the tournament. Trinidad and Tobago qualified as the winners of the Stanford 20/20 whilst Middlesex Crusaders qualified as winners of the Twenty20 Cup in England and Wales.

[edit] Summary

The tournament was seen to have been commenced successfully, though pitch conditions meant that its opening matches were low-scoring. ^[2] Criticism was also levelled at the floodlights in the Antigua pitch, which were low enough to obstruct the vision of fielding players, with Middlesex captain Shaun Udal stating "I have not known a ground where the visibility is as bad". ^[3] The behaviour of organiser Allen Stanford was also questioned, particularly after he offended a number of England players by acting flirtatiously with their wives during a match, actions for which he later apologised ^[4] The England team was later hit by a stomach bug, leading Kevin Pietersen to declare that he was looking forward to the tournament's completion. ^[5] Before the tournament ended, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that they would be reviewing the five year contract that they had signed with Stanford, bringing into question their participation in future tournaments ^[6]

However, the Trinidad and Tobago v England game was described as 'thrilling'. ^[7] The tournament received a large amount of media coverage whilst it was extremely popular with fans in the West Indies. ^[8] Commentators were generally positive about the success of the tournament within its host venue, with Jonathan Agnew claiming that it was organised significantly better than the with the previous World Cup, also held in the West Indies. ^[9]

[edit] Matches

[edit] Exhibition Matches

25 October 2008 scorecard	Stanford Superstars 146/5 (20 overs)	v	Trinidad & Tobago 124/8 (20 overs)	Superstars won by 22 runs Stanford Cricket Ground, Coolidge, Antigua Umpires: Steve Davis and Simon Taufel
	Sylvester Joseph 45* Samuel Badree 2/20		Justin Guillen 31 Sulieman Benn 2/15

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26 October 2008 scorecard	England  121/4 (20 overs)	v	Middlesex 109/4 (20 overs)	England won by 12 runs Stanford Cricket Ground, Coolidge, Antigua Umpires: Asad Rauf and Rudi Koertzen
	Owais Shah 39* Murali Kartik 2/27		Dawid Malan 42* Ryan Sidebottom 1/5 Stuart Broad 1/13

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28 October 2008 scorecard	England  141/6 (20 overs)	v	Trinidad and Tobago 140/9 (20 overs)	England won by 1 run Stanford Cricket Ground, Coolidge, Antigua Umpires: Asad Rauf and Simon Taufel
	Kevin Pietersen 44 Sherwin Ganga 4/23		Denesh Ramdin 37 Andrew Flintoff 3/30

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30 October 2008 scorecard	Stanford Superstars 173/4 (20 overs)	v	Middlesex 115 (17.3 overs)	Superstars win by 58 runs Stanford Cricket Ground, Coolidge, Antigua Umpires: Asad Rauf and SJ Davis
	Andre Fletcher 90 Shaun Udal 1/24		Eoin Morgan Dave Mohammed 2/10 Darren Sammy 2/14

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[edit] Champions Cup

27 October 2008 scorecard	Trinidad and Tobago 122/5 (19.2 overs)	v	Middlesex 117/8 (20 overs)	Trinidad and Tobago won by 5 wickets Stanford Cricket Ground, Coolidge, Antigua Umpires: Steve Davis and Rudi Koertzen Man of the Match: Ravi Rampaul
	Denesh Ramdin 41 Dawid Malan 2/11 Tim Murtagh 2/18		Neil Dexter 39 Ravi Rampaul 4/25

[edit] $20 million match

1 November 2008	England  99 (19.5 overs)	v	Stanford Superstars 101/0 (12.4 overs)	Stanford Superstars won by 10 wickets Stanford Cricket Ground, Coolidge, Antigua Umpires: Rudi Koertzen and Simon Taufel Man of the Match: Darren Sammy
	Samit Patel 22 Sulieman Benn 3/16		Chris Gayle 65* Andre Fletcher 32*

[edit] Squads

[edit] 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. ^[10]

Lionel Baker
Sulieman Benn
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Lennox Cush
Rayad Emrit
Andre Fletcher
Chris Gayle (captain)
Chad Hampson
Lindon James
Sylvester Joseph (vice captain)
Dave Mohammed
Kieron Pollard
Daren Powell
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Jerome Taylor

(Dwayne Bravo (injury), and Xavier Marshall (failed drug test)^[11] were named to the initial team under the initial selection proceedures, but withdrew before the Series was played. Darren Sammy and Travis Dowlin were named to replace them in the squad.^[12])

[edit] 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. ^[13]

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

[edit] 2008 Trinidad and Tobago Squad

Rishi Bachan
Samuel Badree
Darren Bravo
Kevon Cooper
Daron Cruickshank
Daren Ganga (captain)
Sherwin Ganga
Justin Guillen
Amit Jaggernauth
Richard Kelly
William Perkins
Denesh Ramdin
Ravi Rampaul
Lendl Simmons
Navin Stewart

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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. ^[14]

[edit] External links

• Stanford2020.com

[edit] References