Sir Allen Stanford’s Superstars became dollar millionaires shortly after eight o’clock on a balmy Caribbean evening, when they completed a rout of an England XI to take $1m a head, the richest prize ever offered for a team sport. For Stanford and his side, even for his concept of raising the profile of cricket in the region, it was an unalloyed triumph. For England cricket it was an unmitigated disaster. Bowled out inside the full 20 overs for just 99, they could only stand and watch, mouths agape, as the magnificent ball striking of the Superstars captain Chris Gayle and the diminutive keeper Andre Fletcher, Grenada’s answer to Brendon McCullum, slaughtered the bowling with an unbroken opening stand of 101. There were still seven overs and two balls in hand when Gayle blasted a low full toss from Andrew Flintoff over long on for his fifth sixth to end proceedings.
