Archbishop Tutu had flown from South Africa to deliver the annual Cowdrey Memorial Spirit of Cricket Lecture; Sir Allen, a Texan billionaire, had come from Antigua to launch an annual winner-take-all Twenty20 cricket match to be played between England and a West Indies XI for $20 million (£10m). True, the legacy for West Indies cricket will be enormous (much greater than that of the World Cup there last year) since a significant part of the Twenty20 for Twenty, some $24. England and West Indies, Sir Allen and Giles Clarke, the chairman of the ECB, both filled with entrepreneurial vigour, might be made for each other. What was not mentioned at the launch of the Twenty20 for Twenty (it is tacky even to write) was that Sir Allen is also funding an annual quadrangular series, probably to be played at Lord’s, involving four countries. read more

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