ECB should be wary of Stanford Series
England's journey to the Caribbean was meant to be an answer to the enormous changes in world cricket produced by Indian money, in particular the hugely successful launch of the Indian Premier League.
England's contracted players were not allowed to play in the inaugural IPL competition and this adventure to the West Indies was meant to be a sweetener to make up for that.
But with the much talked about million dollar match still to be played, it is clear whatever else Saturday produces this is no challenge to what the Indians unveiled earlier this year.
The players recognise this, I suspect the ECB does - and probably even Sir Allen Stanford.
Millionaires wanting to use their wealth to showcase cricketers is not a new thing.
In the 1920s and 1930s that was how country house cricket thrived and prospered and in India princes, such as the Maharajah of Patiala, built their own grounds importing professionals from England including the great Herbert Sutcliffe to play cricket in front of a select audience that included more than 300 concubines he had - but that was a different era.
Razzmatazz in cricket is nothing new either.
I remember witnessing it in 1979 at a one-day international at the Sydney Cricket Ground , an event heavily influenced by Kerry Packer's World Series. Dear old John Woodcock, the legendary cricket correspondent of The Times, turned to me and said this was pyjama cricket and yes the players did look like they had been dressed in discarded Marks and Spencer nightwear.
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But that was a rebel taking on the cricket establishment, this is an American billionaire who has 'got into bed' with the home of cricket.
The official aims of both Sir Allen and the ECB are very lofty and admirable; he wants to revive West Indies cricket, England want to help in that and also get some money which will help its own grass roots game. Nothing could be more worthy.
The warm-up matches in Antigua have provided a decent enough atmosphere with spectators enthusing over the occasional four, six or wicket but there is a feeling that it is not real cricket, more a frolic by the sea.
The contrast with the IPL could not be more vivid. Earlier this year I went to India to watch the closing stages of the IPL and whatever you may think of Twenty20 cricket - and I am not ashamed to admit that I am a purist for whom Test cricket will always be number one - there was no mistaking that this was a cricket contest that mattered.
I have yet to get that feeling here.
It has not been helped by the way Sir Allen behaved with the wives and girlfriends of England players and while very effort has been made to ensure it is now old news, the fact remains it has caused huge embarrassment.
The ECB says the review it is going to have is nothing special but it is clear this is not how it wants an England match to be promoted.
The England cricketers I have spoken to here, while trying hard to put it behind them and talking of Sir Allen apologising, also admit that they were angry and suggested they have been asked almost forced to come and play here on a rich man's ground. The implication here is that to an extent they must put up with what the rich man does.
And this is where the essential problem arises.
West Indies cricket is not only dismal on the field but off it as well as was evident in the lead up to this series. Some of the Caribbean's leading lights fear for its future.
As for England, far from Stanford being a counter to the banquet the IPL offers, it is at best a pre-dinner drink, at worse a dreadful distraction.
His millions are not a solution for English cricket - the solution lies in India and a deal which will make England's best players available to the IPL.
The ECB must come to terms with Indian cricket. If it does not, it will be in danger of getting bogged down in matches that may generate publicity and bring some money but will do nothing for its cricket in the long term.
I'm 
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i hear that mihir. agree with everything you say.
stanfords behaviour is almost up there with ross and brand's antics!
england need to win the game on sat, pack their bags $1m richer and get out of there!
lets just hope we can win!!
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Good article Mihir, have to agree, the sham that's being run in the west indies is nothing more than an attempt to wrestle away something that india has come up with. England was never the home of cricket, India is and always was. Could it be that England fear losing that mantle that has seen it being referred to the home of cricket? I think so. Cricket is not a game in India, it's a religion. India is the true powerhouse and foundation of world cricket, england have to accept that.
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Even though BCCI is not Gandhi alike, they are not as bad as Stanford antics. I was really stunned and felt sorry for those wag's (wag's are really stupid) and English players when i saw Mr Stanford flirting. At least in IPL they don't do this.
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Am I alone in thinking that this whole Stanford - fill your pockets with as much money as you can, whilst smiling falsely - situation is a very grubby indictment of how far cricket, sport and morality has fallen into the abyss?
We’ve all known that the majority of sportsmen are in it for the money even though they may try and tell us otherwise and we've always known that cash appears to be the key driver in society, but not many sportsmen have been quite so brazen about it until now. Its really tainted my view of the England team as a whole as it just feels like a modern version of that machine on Noels House Party where they try and grab as much money as they can in 20 seconds and it feels wrong, not withstanding the current financial climate.
It’s just not a game of cricket now because winning the money has overtaken winning the game as the prime motivator. I’m not interested in it in the slightest and I wont watch (where I would have been had it been for a trophy or something) and I’m actually at the point where it feels so dirty that I’m hoping that England don’t win so that it’ll serve them right.
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Put Stanford's behaviour into context. it was not that outrageous. it was undoubtedly misguided but it's absoltuely nothing compared to the antics of Percy Sonn a few years ago. he went from falling out of his pants when drunk at a World Cup match to Vice-President of the ICC!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Sonn
There's this constant belief that Stanford's 20-over tournaments are there to make West Indies cricket better. Rubbish. The previous Stanford competitions have shown how low the standard has got. Trinidad and tobago have managed to compete mostly becuase they are used to playing on wickets of a club quality. it's levelled the playing field, quite literally. A combination of Stanford's cash and the thoroughly inept West Indian management means the cricket hasn't improved. Tony Cozier and countless other knowledgable supporters of West Indian cricket have detailed how the board never moves forward, moving from one disaster to another, just as they did prior to this tournament regarding the Digicel sponsorship.
This tournament was always going to be an ego trip. Money turned ECB heads and I actually agree with Rod Bransgrove for once when he says that there should be an investigation into this affair. I wouldn't go for the full resignation element but English cricket has been tarnished through being involved in this tournament.
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after all the slack and nose in thair attitude the ECB gave the IPL, it nice to see ECB eat humble pie. humble at 20mil of course. wait a minute? aren't these the same people who looked down upon the indians for doing the same!!
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I fail to understand this whole Stanford premise.
The bottom line of this endeavour is to get people to watch. To build up a huge audience and thus to strengthen and revive the popularity of WI cricket.
How exactly is this million pound game going to do that? The stakes may be high for the players but why should the viewing public care in the slightest whether or not Pieterson's or Gayle's bank balance swells by £640,000?
The thrill of cricket, as with any sport, is in the glory for those the team represents. The World Cup is so important to fans because their team fights for their nation, for them. I don't think anyone cared what the Indian cricket team's win bonus was the last time they won? All that mattered was the glory of beating Pakistan in the final.
This rather embarrasing spectacle seems to me to be no more than a platform for a desperate attention seeking party boy billionaire to feed an ego the size of Bournemouth.
And at difficult financial times like these, outrageous acts of largesse such as this only serve to alienate the paying public and damage the game instead of enhancing it.
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How is the name of good heavens is Stanford trying to imitate the IPL when the first Stanford 20/20 was in 2006 and the IPL only started in 2008? Question the standard of cricket but please done rewrite history.
And why is Sanford at fault for someone's wife deciding to sit on his lap? Was there a gun to her head? Did her look embarassed, because the photos I saw showed three people having a laugh and seemingly as ease with the situation.
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It frankly defies belief that the ECB got itself involved with this trivial and vulgar charade. It has been clear for some time that the Governance of English cricket is in the hands of those whose only measure is a financial one. For the Clarke/Collier axis money is the only thin g that matters and the fact that this tournament has no proper status in world cricket or that everyone involved (even now including the players) thinks it stinks matters not one hoot to the unelected and self-perpetuating cabal that is the ECB.
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I've got bored watching Twenty20 cricket. I started watching test cricket on Channel 4 a few years ago. I have always found test cricket is much better. The battles that develop between batsmen and bowlers, the bowler on top, the batsman trying to survive. The thinking of the captains, batsmen and the bowlers is evident.
Twenty20 is great here and there.......an add on to a series of ODI matches, a curtain raiser as it was in the 2005 ashes series. But the bread and butter....No thanks
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There is no chance that the ECB or the players would be doing this if it wasn't for the obscene amount of money
This is purely mercenary and has absolutely no redeeming features. There would be zero interest without the "Rich American who somehow got a knighthood puts up $20 million for a single 20/20 match" angle that keeps getting rammed down our throats with every article ever written about it
I'm thoroughly sick of the whole affair - although it does have some of the appeal of a train wreck as I can't seem to help reading about it :-)
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arrogantsod
This game was planned long before the true extent current financial crisis was evident so classifying the match as "an act of largesse" is more than a touch unfair and alot revisionist.
How does/could it help the game? Can I offer two arguements
1. by attracting viewers it would otherwise not have due to the publicity the $20m has generated.
2. by encouraging younger players to focus on the game rather than opting for football and basketball as cricket will be seem as completing with these sports in terms of financial rewards. (Not long ago Brian Lara only offered £40k per year, and this was months after his 375, 501 and 7 100's in 8 innings)
Side issues of cricket politics, inappropriate behaviour, questionably organisation should not detract from that introducing funds into the game is a good thing.
That being said I believe the money could have been better spend on a more competitive match involving the very best players or on expanded series with 4-6 teams.
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BLOG ENTRY No2.
You say England has never been the home of cricket. This is utter nonsense.
1) The game was invented here.
2) Twenty 20 at county level was invented here in 2003, and has bee n run the same ever since.
India however powerful now in World cricket are cannot ever change history. Although they might try.
I dont agree with the Stanford 'tournament'. But i also dont agree with a lot of the rubbish coming from people either.
England has a established twenty 20 tournament. Thats enough as far as im concerned. the 'EPL' should be shelved and left to the Indians with their IPL and ICL to turn their teams into sloggers!
As far as I can see the ICL is as good as the IPL amd the Indian Board are showing their lack of skill in handling the situation.
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The IPL has taken a lead but it is not too late for the ECB etc. to restructure UK cricket. If the ECB cannot come up with a structure that will accommodate the various forms of the game AND attract a significant level of financial support...... the game will simply follow the money and they (the ECB) will lose control and become irrelevant. The Stanford situation should be a wake up call!
Don't blame the players or the sponsors for the current mess, the game need LEADERSHIP!
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Stanford's behaviour is not the problem.
The problem is that here we have four teams, two for them old style county/island teams, one an invitational team and the fourth a proper international team on an end of year tour.
Short of money none of them have any real incentive to perform.
Contrast that with the IPL where the eight teams are driven forward by eight sets of management that all have the drive to prove themselves to be the most successful for themselves and theri respective cities. Even without win bonuses there is real incentive there for the management. Also for the senior players who have been brought in at a much more intrinsic level than they ever will in England. Major players have a say in how the club is run there, here they turn up and make guest appearances, easily replaced if they get a call up. And for the younger players, the locals, those maybe brought in only to fill up the quota places (which were a great piece of thinking from the IPL), this is their chance to shine playing against world class players in every match and how some of them have done so has in turn enlightened the crowds.
Everything about the IPL is major big time, only the prize is in the stanford series.
Time for the ECW and cricket at large to realise that the IPL is the real champions league of Cricket and embrace it.
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I thought this tournament would be an embarrassing farce, but it's even worse than expected. The sordid spectacle is an absolute disgrace, and it's actually putting me off the whole England cricket setup - one of the reasons they're worried about the coverage I suppose.
The man has no class, manners or respect for the game, and in the 30 minutes of coverage I managed to sit through on sky I became quite sick of the sight of him. Who needs their own cameraman when they're not involved in the game? What sort of egotist goes around 'meeting and greeting' (on camera) as if they're royalty or a world leader? Is this really the future of cricket? Give me the IPL ahead of this any day, and that's coming from a lover of test cricket.
I realise that "Trini66" and other locals appreciate what he's done for the region, to the point of suggesting a pregnant woman "decided" to sit on his lap. Fair enough, they're entitled to their opinion. But we should steer well clear and keep that helicopter away from Lord in future.
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. This Stanford show piece is not about cricket in my opinion is taking Hollywood to Antigua. It is a sad time for true cricket fans. I am not against cricketers receiving big pay cheques but not in that mannerod dictatorship style.
I hope that we don't forget the real cricket because of the love of money. Test cricket I hope you will never die but live in the hearts of true cricket lovers.
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Isn't it that Stanford "is using cricketers to showcase his wealth" rather than the other way around?
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Why are people getting so worked up about this? No one was forced into this event. Everyone had their motives. For the WICB, they get some cash and interest from people in the region which may help cricket there fend off the growing popularity of other (US) sports. This may help cricket in the Caribbean. For the ECB, they get 'free' money for not doing too much.
All the other antics are just that. The wags of some of the players behaved as wags do. Sir Allen is noted for this and is a warm person. So what? No one complains when some types dress up oddly to watch cricket and then get drunk.
And how do people connect this to the IPL? Stanford pre-dates it. The IPL cannot be bettered by any other country as India has the cash and people to secure its position. The other boards should accept that. Why are other countries worried? When the WI dominated the world, there was no concern about where the centre of power was. These things go around. Cricket has to ensure that the 20-20 does not derail Test cricket. Next year the IPL has already seen off the Eng-SL series - if there are other tournaments, worse could follow.
One criticism – why does the WICB not notice how the WI fans like this format of the game and set-up their own region-wide version like SA, Ind, Eng and Aus? This would surely improve standards locally and help the WI national team.
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Good comments. But why is blame not given where it truly is deserved, the ECB. From the ridiculous sight of the chest bumping at Lords with Stanford to the even more idiotic suitcases of dollar notes, why did the so called ' classy' and elite members of the ECB think that this was going to be a great event.
While it is all very well to comment on the utter mercenary attitudes generated by the IPL and the BCCI flaunting its welath and power why is blame not squarely laid at the door of the ECB for selling the soul of cricket. The players themselves also share a portion of the blame- what did they think- all that money and Stanford is not going to 'use' them for publicity.
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Well, I see a bit of a cultural clash here guys! I see a bit of the old cricket English "gentleman" and the American who doesn't buy this whole "colonial" thing!
I was last in the UK last year and I saw quite a bit of crime in the papers and nasty "yob" behaviour on the trains etc. Remeber the tabloids??
I find it hard to buy the whole "outcry" thing on here and in the papers back in ol' England!
Lets stop being hypocrites!! Society and social behaviour has so declined, we ought to be a little slow jumping on others!!
Especially, the English should be the last people to do that.
Stop the hypocrisy!!
Thats not to say the Mr. Stanford has no case to answer.
He and the rest of us need to be a little more thoughtful about others.
Case closed. Lets play some cricket ladies and gentlemen
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Stanford's first choice was India but I guess the BCCI did foresee the farcical nature of tournament and rejected it. Then the ECB fell for the money trap and are clearly embarrassed by the current events. Lalit Modi must be laughing at ECB's attempt to rival IPL.
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An excellent article by Mr Bose.
The Stanford tournament (controversies aside) has merely delayed the inevitable, in my opinion. Expect two of England's top players to be signed up by the IPL as soon as they land in India for the Test Match series, if not before.
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Money, Money, and more Money.
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Stanford said that back in June he was a hero...get real, I and many felt sick when I heard of this circus, and I'm feeling sicker by the day now looking at it all.
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Stanford has got a relly slappable face hasn't he! Rich buffoon
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I agree with adyeeri post #21.
Many of the reactions sound similar to those that greeted the Kerry Packer “circus”. Perhaps they would like to see the return of “Gentlemen” and “Player” distinctions?
Whether we like it or not, the world, and the game, is changing (still), and Cricket needs to adjust.
Personally, I hope that Test Cricket continues, but administrators may need to be inventive about how it is going to be preserved. Allen Stanford may, or may not, be part of that.
Dr_Grammar (post #16), you say Allen Stanford has “no class”.
There are some people in the world (I’m not one of them) who think watching Sky TV is a sign of “no class”, even if you could only manage it for 30 minutes.
Also, you may wish to check the grammar and punctuation of your last sentence. Apologies if you’re being ironical.
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No one has come out of this whole affair particularly well. Stanford looks like a priapic investment banker on a visit to Spearmint Rhino's. The ground in Antigua looks like it wouldn't be fit for club cricket. The ECB look like they've been duped, and the players look visibly embarrassed. It's a shame that the whole farce is taking away from an excellent test series (real cricket - anyone remember that?) in India. I'm sure in the future real cricket fans will remember this series as marking the decline of a great Australian team when the Stanford shambles is long forgotten. West Indian and English cricket fans certainly aren't interested in Stanford's pantomime, so I don't see why anyone else should be.
I'm amused to see proponents of the IPL getting on to their high horses here. I doubt Stanford cares any more or less about cricket than say, ooh, Shah Rukh Khan, who isn't shy of using his IPL franchise to promote either himself or his execrable films. The real villain at the heart of all this is Lalit Modi, cricket's answer to Bernie Ecclestone, who is quite content to torpedo the Sri Lankan and New Zealand test teams to keep money rolling into the BCCI's coffers. Until credulous nicompoops with MTV attention spans find something other than the IPL to gawp at, or until the likes of Khan, Stanford and India Cements get bored or realise that the only person making money out of T20 is Modi, then proper cricket fans (and there are millions all over the world, perhaps especially in India) will suffer as their beloved sport is cheapened. At the end however, someone is going to have to make a profit from all of this T20 nonsense for it to continue, and I haven't seen any numbers to convince me that they will.
Bonaku - I don't know if the WAGs are more or less stupid than anyone else, but I imagine at least some of them are able use apostrophes correctly.
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Having visited Antigua many a time on holiday, i have been fortunate enough to visit the Stanford Ground for a regional T20 match. The facilities there are absolutely impeccibe, the setting is perfect and the hospitality is fantastic. To be honest, it would put many county grounds here in England to shame.
The smugness of some of you "purists" really is laughable to say the least. Stanford is giving 2 teams of players the opportunity to strike it rich! with a certain amount of the winnings being pumped into grassroots cricket. Surey that's good for the game?
The amount of publicity this match will get will be off the scale!This will surely introduce more people to the game in the long-run.
Some of you have branded the whole event a "circus". The facilities are excellent, the crowds have flocked to the ground and the matches have been good to say the least!
What did you all expect!
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the frogstar - I'm not sure if this is really about class distinctions or colonialism (although that does seem to come up a lot on messageboards where cricket fans are involved: I think some people like to cultivate an image of the ECB as Raj-style imperialists twirling waxed moustaches, rather than the reality, which is a bunch of slightly hopeless provincial businessmen); it's about a sport being hijacked for the commercial gain of a small number of people. It happens the world over, in football, baseball, American football, motor sport, and now cricket. It's sad, as is the widely-held opinion on here that the IPL represents the triumph of Indian cricket over MCC fustiness: Indian fans are getting ripped off, I have a suspicion that it's their cricket that will suffer more than most. That would be a disaster, because a nation of 1 billion cricket fans - test cricket fans - is a fantastic thing.
Adyeeri - your dissection of tabloid morality, imperial politics and the collapse of social order is the most bizarre and amusing thing I've read for some time. Keep it up!
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the lieutenant,
I'm not really taking either the 'class-distinctions' or 'post-colonialism' lines, but there does seem to be an 'outraged of Tunbridge Wells' reaction from many people.
I'm sure that the 'Stanford' affair will probably be a small footnote in the history of Cricket.
I think that the ECB, or whoever is really in charge of English (and Welsh!) cricket, is coming late to the 'commercial game'. Someone like Richard Scudamore of the premier league might be a much better person to have at the helm.
I may have done Dr_Grammar a disservice regarding his/her use of English. My own post came up with typos, despite my spell-checking it before pasting from MS Word.
I also re-checked it in the comments window before pressing the "post" button.
Please, Mr Moderator, I know you must read this before it is posted. Why does it do this?
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The biggest drawback in stanford series as compared to IPL is there is no real cricket being played here. In IPL, you had top class cricketers from the whole globe and the cricket could have been a real learning experience for many players. Especially with 2011 cricket world cup in the sub-continent, it might have been a good idea to send younger guns to get accustomed to the playing conditions and pitches in India as well as make some quick money. All in all, a real incentive lost on a cricketing front unfortunately !
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Silly comments from silly people. 20/20 is proving to be the most popular form of cricket with the paying and non-paying TV public.
Also these cricketers prefer it, just quietly.
Test cricket is ideal for retired grumpy old men mostly over 60 years and would have beens. The proof is on your TV screen.
You can turn it off and who cares.
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I'm not a huge fan of Allen Stanford or his odd behaviour during the England game, nor do I think the tournament has been well done (poor pitch, poor lighting etc).
But,
1. It is only one week in a year
2. It probably will get a few more spectators into cricket more
3. If there wasn't a financial crisis everyone would be saying: "Oh it's nice to see that there is some good money being put into cricket" [the ECB get a reasonable sum regardless of the result]
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#21 adyeeri: So we are not allowed to comment on cricket because there are yobs on our trains? We spend enough time complaining about the yobs, and we have every right to comment on a game we love. Every country in the world has problems (incl India by the way, I was there recently) so by your logic no sports fan anywhere has the right to comment on any sport. And you have the nerve to call us 'hypocrites'? What a joke.
27. thefrogstar: Yes, I was in a rush and made a couple of typos. As do many people on here including you. I thought we were talking about cricket? The 'grammar' handle was a joke with a friend, I'm not claiming to be a schoolteacher. Perhaps we can stick to addressing the logic of our respective arguments.
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Trini66
From the people who have contributed to this blog less than 1% have said they will actually watch the match and it has similar reaction else where if you do some research so to answer your first point, the game will not attract more viewership even though it has generated lot of publicity and most of it has been not very favourable to say the least. As for youngsters taking up cricket as a game with similar financial rewards like other sports, I really doubt thisis the way to increase interest in youngsters and is not the likely reason young people go in sports or play any particular game.
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What is the problem? So Standford is a wealthy man that can afford to give $20m for one game, He is a self promoter tell me one business man that is not. The Standford cricket series was not meant to rival IPL because Standford is in the Caribbean where people have not heard of IPL let alone be interested in it. It is not even broadcast in the region, ask any ordinary man on the street to name one of the teams that is in the IPL. The only mistake that standford commit was in inviting England to take part. The English are so stuck up and arrogant that all they could do is complain and complain. Please! So his wife /girlfriend sit on the man lap and he is upset with the man. Let me give him a little West Indian advice don't try to clean up someone backyard when your front yard is dirty. In other word man get vex with your woman before you get angry with the outside party. Please!
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The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. This is part of the penalty for trying to do some thing NEW and every man that dose understands this, too.
So for all you fault finders, weather it is with Sir. Allan Stanford or the Cricket event fails to see the big picture before you. The man is doing a wonderful thing for the WI, he is fanning the embers of the fire that was dyeing out for cricket in the Caribbean, and the hunger for the game is coming back
So if there is something that he is doing wrong in holding the event then make a suggestion how he can do it better, rather than criticized.
As too the English players Girl friend and wives having a bit fun with Sir Allan Stanford at the game, that’s all it was a bit of fun. In the WI we party and watch cricket at the same time, we have fun
It is sad that all some people can do is look down their nose at others and guff
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Sir Allan Stanford is a man and we love him in the WI for what he has done and if he can promote his company at the same time then great....... while we flatter ourselves that things remain the same, they are changing under our very eyes from year to year, from day to day. 20\20 is the entertaining side of cricket, test matches will always be the main cricket event on if or but about that.
PS: if the English team feels this event belittles them, then say so and we will get some one else to participate in the event
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I am a keen cricket viewer and in the past year have followed, IPL, Test Matches and One dayers.
Recently, I have been following following India-Australia Test Series, and the 20-20 match today.
I think we should get over the denial phase and agree that 20-20 Stanford affair, was in a way (if not directly) cooked up to counter IPL. Has it worked ? Let me think.
There is a fundamental difference between putting cash prize for a single match and going the franchise route which IPL has followed. I have no shame in denying that Money Speaks, but it should speak at the right time, and should not act as a distraction in any manner.
If the cash boils down to a single match (or series) affair, then eventually everyone (that includes media, commentators, and Joe Sixpack) will speak about that '20-million' sixer, 20-million catch, 20-million single, or 20-million whatever. and, therein lies the distraction. With this approach, the spirit of game has got mixed with the cash-speak and somehow it does not make sense to me.
On the other hand, in the franchise route, you get paid for your worth and the cash-business is settled before the matches begin. The match is eventually played for the quintessential 'cricketing' reasons. There is no over-the-top talk of 'big money' during the matches, and that makes it more palatable (compared to Stanford's 20-20 affair).
Resisting change is futile, but at the same time, if something has to retain its character and outlive the critics, then it has to respect the 'core' values, and more importantly understand the 'core' values.
As regards cricket, the 'core' is the spirit of the game, the competitiveness, and million other surprises that cricket offers. If you try to play around with those, then its just delaying the inevitable.
Grow organically, and you will outlive the critics.
Last but not the least, I think 20-20 reflects the reality of fast-paced society we live in. With so much cut-throat competition in the world, and people having so many distractions (with computers, internet etc etc..), taking time out is hard if not difficult.
And, we wouldn't be having all this discussion, if it were not 'professional' sports - so lets face it...
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Making the money the focus of the event creates interest, but not enthusiasm. The prize money should be a secondary concern – a supporter can take no pride in a team’s victory if the purpose of the competition is solely financial reward for the players
see opine-blog.com for more.
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