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Keeping his players' eyes on the ball, and not the flashing dollar signs, will be New Zealand coach John Bracewell's biggest task going into their Twenty20 match against England.
The tourists boarded their bus to Manchester immediately after dispatching Worcestershire by 95 runs in a one-day warmup match after a Brendon McCullum century led them to an imposing 358 for eight.
A one-off Twenty20 match looms at a sold out Old Trafford early on Saturday, a form of the game that can now make players instant millionaires.
As New Zealand were completing victory over Worcestershire, Texan billionaire Allen Stanford was at Lord's announcing plans for five US$20 million ($26.8 million) Twenty20 matches between England and West Indies, starting in Antigua on November 1. The prize? A cool US$1 million per player from the winning 11.
Stanford said Twenty20 cricket could replace soccer as the world's leading team sport. New Zealand will reportedly be invited to play in Stanford's US$9.5 million quadrangular tournament in England next year, also involving the West Indies.
Bracewell admitted he had mixed feelings about the Twenty20 revolution.
"There are some fantasy-type numbers that are being flicked about. Trying to keep everybody's heads level is not necessarily easy."
- NZPA
