So now it’s vulgar to appear on the "hallowed" turf at Lord’s in a gold-plated helicopter in order to show off a treasure chest of $20 million? Cricket’s establishment cannot retreat fast enough from their warm embrace of Texan Allen Stanford last summer.
Former Wisden editor Tim de-Lisle has now described the scene at Lord’s as “undignified” and accused administrators and the ex-players who were party to it as blinded by the amount of money on offer. One of those ex-players, Ian Botham, wrote in The Daily Mirror that the sorry Stanford debacle leaves English cricket with “nothing but egg on its face.” He conveniently left out his own role in the charade.
Current England star Kevin Pietersen, never one afraid to speak his mind, once compared the Stanford deal to winning the lottery. Now he says that he felt that the England team had been sold. Maybe the reason he took so long to express his doubts was that he had signed a two-year deal to be one of Stanford’s "ambassadors."
I wrote back in June that Stanford’s millions came at a cost that further cedes power to business interests and threatens the format of cricket and hence its long-term stability. I predicted that alongside a few winners, there will be many more losers.
OK, so I might have over-estimated those who benefited, but the reasoning behind the assertion was based on Stanford’s questionable motives for getting involved in cricket.
Stanford now stands accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of a “massive ongoing fraud” of “shocking magnitude” worth an alleged $8 billion.
As more information about Stanford's background becomes known, the English Cricket Board (ECB) is left looking at best inept and incompetent, and at worst downright greedy.
By 2008, Stanford’s personal fortune was $2.1 billion, which allowed Forbes to rank him the 605th richest man in the world. He invested his own and his organisation’s funds in promoting the Stanford brand and protecting his interests.
It was not only in sports that Stanford’s organisations sought to buy influence. Large amounts were invested in American politicians. House of Representatives member Bob Ney, who served 17 months in prison for conspiracy to defraud, was amongst those who received funding. Ney was a member of the Financial Services Committee, a body regulating offshore banking.
President Barack Obama was the third largest individual recipient of donations from the Stanford Financial Group. He received $31,750 during his presidential campaign. His opponent John McCain also received more than $28,000, whilst Hilary Clinton, now the secretary of state, received $6,900. The single largest individual recipient was Bill Nelson, the Florida senator who was vice-chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2002, when Congress was considering tougher anti-fraud legislation.
It is easy to see why Stanford might want friends in Washington. The US Treasury Department had warned about the lax regulation of Antigua’s offshore banks and their links to money laundering. Stanford flew members of the House Caribbean Caucus to the West Indies for meetings and holidays.
3 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete