Three lesser known Twenty20 matches and tournaments

2. Stanford 20/20 for 20 (in 2008):

The Stanford Super Series T20 game was played between England and Stanford Super Stars team on 1st November 2008 for a whopping 20 million dollars sponsored by Allen Stanford. The tournament included England T20 champions Middlesex and Caribbean T20 champions Trinidad & Tobago. However, those matches served to be warm-ups ahead of the T20 for $20M between the combined West Indies XI and England national side.

The big game turned out to be a one-sided affair as the Superstars team bundled out England on just 99 in 19.5 overs. Sulieman Benn took three wickets while Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor and Kieron Pollard bagged two wickets each. Captain Chris Gayle guided his side to a 10-wicket win with his 45-ball 68 that included five fours and five sixes. Superstars chase down the target in just 12.4 overs. Gayle’s partner Andrew Fletcher finished next with 32 off 31 balls.

All the players in the winning XI earned themselves 1 million dollars while the players on the bench shared one million between themselves. The concept of Stanford Super Series was created with a five-year contract but was called off in 2009 as Allen Stanford was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy claim. 13 out of the 14 charges laid on him by the U.S. authorities were proved and 110 years of prison was inflicted on Stanford in 2012.