The Man Who Bought Cricket - 3-part Sky Documentary
Jan 9, 2022 21:13:47 GMT
flashblade and ashingtonmartlet like this
Post by enoughisenough on Jan 9, 2022 21:13:47 GMT
I don't know if any another forum members have seen this 3-part Sky Documentary series about Allen Stanford and the 2008 West Indies-England T20 game played for $20 million in Antigua.
It's an eye-opening account of the Ponzi scheme being run by Stanford, and documents the FBI, Dept of Justice and SEC investigation into him and his "bank", which resulted in him being arrested less than a year after the match was played
(and now serving life imprisonment). Tens of thousands of mainly US investors were ruined as a result of the fraud.
Seeing again the shots of Stanford's helicopter landing at Lords, the press conference with the case of thousands of dollar bills -
Stanford being fawned over by ECB chairman Giles Clarke while Sir Ian Botham and Sir Viv Richards are there to give credibility to the event, it's truly embarrassing. And to hear again Clarke buttering up Stanford as "an impressive entrepreneur".
Staggering that the ECB never did any due diligence on Stanford, simply being dazzled by the money being showered around.
Interestingly, the only two England players interviewed - Luke Wright and Stuart Broad - both admit to the team's collective unease at the whole set-up as soon as they arrived in Antigua and realised the extent to which it was an Allen Stanford ego trip and PR exercise.
Both Luke and Stuart are very honest as to how they and the whole team felt about the experience, and Broad says that it was, with hindsight, extremely fortunate that the England team didn't win the money,
(given that it would have been money stolen /misappropriated by Stanford from his investors).
Giles Clarke was always a controversial and fairly unpopular figure during his time as head of the ECB, but this truly was the nadir for post-war English cricket. Embarrassing doesn't begin to cover it. And it was on his watch.
No surprise at all that he declined to be interviewed for the programme.
Well worth watching as the ultimate example of administrators, in putting commercial considerations before cricketing matters, bringing this great game of ours into disrepute.
It's an eye-opening account of the Ponzi scheme being run by Stanford, and documents the FBI, Dept of Justice and SEC investigation into him and his "bank", which resulted in him being arrested less than a year after the match was played
(and now serving life imprisonment). Tens of thousands of mainly US investors were ruined as a result of the fraud.
Seeing again the shots of Stanford's helicopter landing at Lords, the press conference with the case of thousands of dollar bills -
Stanford being fawned over by ECB chairman Giles Clarke while Sir Ian Botham and Sir Viv Richards are there to give credibility to the event, it's truly embarrassing. And to hear again Clarke buttering up Stanford as "an impressive entrepreneur".
Staggering that the ECB never did any due diligence on Stanford, simply being dazzled by the money being showered around.
Interestingly, the only two England players interviewed - Luke Wright and Stuart Broad - both admit to the team's collective unease at the whole set-up as soon as they arrived in Antigua and realised the extent to which it was an Allen Stanford ego trip and PR exercise.
Both Luke and Stuart are very honest as to how they and the whole team felt about the experience, and Broad says that it was, with hindsight, extremely fortunate that the England team didn't win the money,
(given that it would have been money stolen /misappropriated by Stanford from his investors).
Giles Clarke was always a controversial and fairly unpopular figure during his time as head of the ECB, but this truly was the nadir for post-war English cricket. Embarrassing doesn't begin to cover it. And it was on his watch.
No surprise at all that he declined to be interviewed for the programme.
Well worth watching as the ultimate example of administrators, in putting commercial considerations before cricketing matters, bringing this great game of ours into disrepute.