cricket.rickeyre.com

Allen Stanford’s multi-million dollar 20/20 extravaganza has become the latest entrant to the Pantheon of Cricket Vaporware - those would-be cash cows that disappear after, if they’re lucky, one outing, or if they’re unlucky - none.

The Stanford 20/20 Super Star match, set down between West Indies and South Africa for November 10 with a winner take-all purse of €3.9 million, has been cancelled. The reason will shock you, so sit down.

It clashes with an official ICC fixture. The West Indies start a Test match at Lahore less than 24 hours after the scheduled date of Allen Stanford’s brainchild.

I’ll defer to Caribbeancricket.com for analysis of the reasons and impact of the cancellation. Five million smackers for a twenty over-a-side slugfest sounds ridiculously obscene, and hopefully the lad from Texas will do something more constructive and less flashy next time… and I reckon there will be a next time.
Oh, the mention of vaporware reminds me to check out www.i2020cc.com for any updates…

Consider this a public service announcement: BBC Radio Leicester’s coverage of an international twenty overs a side carnival is being streamed on the internet.

Click here from 2pmBST Saturday if you care.

WBUR Boston’s weekly “Only A Game” radio program is doing a feature on Pro Cricket on Saturday September 11. That should be available to hear live at 7am EST (1100 GMT, 9pm in Sydney) and archived later for listening on-demand.

The audio link is on the WBUR home page, and there is more information on WBUR’s Only A Game site.

For the record, the San Francisco Freedom won the inaugural (or should I say, only to date) Pro Cricket final last Saturday, defeating the New Jersey Fire by three wickets in the twenty over-a-side competition. The rather oddly-constructed Pro Cricket website has more information.

(Update 29/11/05: See the Only A Game website for the audio and photos from the 2004 final.)