On the Front Foot: Sir Allen's detractors make an exhibition of themselves

Sir Allen Stanford must sometimes wonder why he bothered. Perhaps his motives for staging the Stanford Super Series are not wholly beneficent, but then he has put up far north of £62m to get this show on the road. Beneficiaries there will undoubtedly be, not least the broke and inefficient West Indies Cricket Board, to whom the sponsor of the event will give $17.5m over the next five years. A similar sum will go to the England and Wales Cricket Board. If Stanford's ultimate aim is to break into the US television market, he is genuinely helping others along the way. And all he has received for his pains has been the obloquy of the British press. Front Foot has been as vitriolic as the rest this week, never missing an opportunity to deride the Texan multibillionaire and usually creating one. The problem throughout has been the lack of context for the match. England are in effect playing an exhibition against a team raised and bankrolled by a rich man because he feels like it. Everything else that followed has been seized on – from the helicopter at Lord's to the unfortunate photo of Sir Allen bouncing one of the England players' wives on his knee this week. That gave a real opportunity for moral censure. Stanford probably has skeletons; you do not become the 239th richest man in America without having buried a few metaphorical bodies. But ultimately all he has done is organise a cricket event with a lot of money at stake which a lot of people have enjoyed. Lighten up, chaps.

Bang goes the gong

Now it seems the poor fellow has been stripped of his knighthood in a startling piece of pomposity. Sir Allen was honoured by the government of Antigua, where he first set up a business 26 years ago, in 2006. He was dubbed by Prince Edward. But that's not good enough for one British newspaper, which instructed its staff that he cannot be a knight since the gong was not awarded by the British Government. Pity the wretch when he informs Sir Viv Richards, also honoured by Antigua, that he isno such thing.

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Blast of hot air

The Super Series has generally been well received in Antigua, where it is an integral part of their Independence Day celebrations. But to show that the man himself can do no right, a letter in a local daily (the one he doesn't own) berated him. He lowered ticket prices considerably to make it easier for Antiguans whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Omar. But those who had bought their tickets at full price insist it is unfair and are creating a storm of their own.

Odd platform for Ramps

How to latch on to an event in a completely unconnected fashion. A press release said yesterday: "With the richest game in cricket history taking place on Saturday night, former England star Mark Ramprakash has spoken of his support for netball to be an Olympic sport." Eh?

s.brenkley@independent.co.uk