PC: dnaindia
The International Council of Cricket recently revealed the prize money for the winning team and runner-up team of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 to be held in India. The big prize money for the winning team is US$4 million i.e. more than Rs 33 crore.
Although the ODI World Cup offers the highest prize money of all cricket tournaments around the world, there is one age-old cricket match whose prize money was the highest ever in the history of the game, double that of both the World Cup and the IPL.
The highest cash prize ever awarded in cricket history was in the 2008 Stanford Super Series, a series of domestic T20 format cricket matches sponsored by English billionaire Alan Stanford, who was later convicted of financial fraud.
The star event of the series was a match between the England national cricket team and an all-star team from the Caribbean, called the Stanford Superstars. The official cash prize for the winning team was US$20 million, the largest ever prize money in cricket history.
According to the valuation of the US dollar against the Indian rupee in 2008, US$20 million was worth more than Rs 87 crore. Each member of the winning team was planned to receive US$1 million, while the remaining amount was to be given to staff members, and there was no prize money for the runners-up.
The Indian cricket team, which had recently won the 2008 T20 World Cup, was also invited to play but declined the offer as the BCCI launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the same year. The total cost of the tournament was US$100 million.
However, founder Allen Stanford was convicted of fraud and money laundering, and ultimately, the Stanford Super Series never began.
