Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford yesterday unveiled a multi-million dollar joint venture with the England and Wales Cricket Board which will see a one-off, winner-takes-all US$20 million match being staged in Antigua this November.

The match, scheduled for November 1 on Antigua and Barbuda's Independence Day, will be held annually for the next five years at the Stanford Cricket Ground, and will result in US$100 million being poured out during that period.

A Stanford Twenty20 All-Stars team, which will be selected shortly, will clash with England for the largest ever payout for a single cricket match.

"I don't think I'm giving it (money) away, I'm investing it in cricket's future for the West Indies," Sir Allen told reporters.

"As everybody knows, we are in the bottom of the trough right now and I've been in the Caribbean for 26 years, and when you see something that you love so dearly - that glue, that fabric that binds us all together in the West Indies - at the bottom, you want to do everything in your power to bring it back up.

"Right now, we're not running our sport in the Caribbean at a professional level so, hopefully, this will, as long as we continue to focus on the future, be a great thing that moves us very quickly in that direction."

Every member of the winning 12-man squad will take home US$1million dollars with another million being shared among the coaching and management staff. The West Indies Cricket Board and the ECB will split the remaining cash.

Though the prize money will be worth US$100 million, the overall value of the match is expected to be as much as US$150 million because of other associated costs.

West Indies Cricket Board president Julian Hunte said he was thrilled by the venture and said he viewed the investment from a developmental perspective.

"It is [important money for West Indies cricket] and, in fact, it is a very serious investment, the largest investment that we have had by any one individual in cricket, period," Hunte said.

ECB chairman Giles Clarke lauded Sir Allen for the lucrative venture and noted that it was important to England that West Indies cricket returned to the top.

"He is a great, legendary entrepreneur. He has the entrepreneur skill of stopping an opportunity and seizing it and taking it forward," Clarke said.

"He cares intensely about the Caribbean and about the development of cricket in the Caribbean and West Indies cricket. That's really important to English cricket."