Angus Fraser: Who gives a damn? It's not cricket

If the branding and commercial rights row between the West Indies Cricket Board and Digicel, the WICB's principal sponsor, results in Sir Allen Stanford's Twenty20 for $20m match being cancelled, England's cricketers will be deprived of the chance of earning $1m for an evening's work.

Such a conclusion would understandably leave Kevin Pietersen and his side feeling pretty hacked off. But, if we are being totally honest, the rest of the cricketing world, including the vast majority of England supporters, could not give a damn. It is not that former players such as myself are jealous of the cash modern cricketers earn – good luck to them – it is that the match between the Stanford All-Star XI and England flies in the face of what sport is meant to be about.

Teams play matches to be successful and win trophies for the country they represent and the fans who passionately follow them. For a player, fortune is amassed and fame is gained as a direct result of excelling in these events and winning trophies.

Stanford's match, however, is different. It has been arranged almost as a "Big Brother" experiment, so that a billionaire can promote himself and his company while watching how players react when playing under a huge and falsely created amount of pressure. The game is an irrelevance. No trophy of any value will be won and the performances of the players will not appear in their career records. It is nothing more than an exhibition game.

That the England and Wales Cricket Board agreed to participate in what is scheduled to be a five-match deal highlights how desperate it was to cash in on the success of Twenty20 cricket and keep its players sweet. By agreeing to play the ECB basically said that the England team, if the price is right, are for hire. Next time it may be a bar mitzvah or wedding that they agree to play at.

The games and the possibility of earning huge sums of money have allowed the ECB to gain greater control of its players, who were reacting negatively to the fact they were unable to play in the Indian Premier League. No player was likely to turn down a central contract if it increased the possibility of him missing out on such a lucrative game.

Stanford's match was never likely to stop Pietersen and several of his team-mates asking to play in the IPL, but the desire to cash in next April in India will increase should negotiations fail to reach an amicable conclusion.

It would, however, be a major surprise if an agreement is not reached. After all, it is money, not the integrity of the game, that talks.

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