ST. JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):
FORMER WEST Indies captain Clive Lloyd has hailed the Stanford Twenty/20 tournament as a 'phenomenal' achievement.
"It is absolutely phenomenal for anyone to even conceive of getting all 19 teams together, let alone to organize it," Lloyd said of the tournament that bowls off next week.
"Mr. Stanford deserves a lot of credit for this venture and I'm sure a lot of positives will come from it.
"This will be a tremendous display of talent; for the first time, an unprecedented number of current regional cricketers will be on show."
The curtain on the tournament will be raised next Tuesday when St. Maarten and the U.S. Virgin Islands clash in the opening game at the Stanford Cricket Ground.
The tournament, which runs from July 11 to August 13, will feature 19 Caribbean countries vying for a top prize of US$1 million, with the second-place team receiving US$500,000.
In addition, the Man-of-the-Match in every game will receive US$25,000 while the Player-of-the-Final will get US $100,000.
The competing teams are Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
