by EZRA STUART in Jamaica

THERE IS NO COMPETITION between Digicel and Texan billionaire Allen Stanford when it comes to injecting big bucks in the sponsorship of sporting tournaments in the Caribbean.

In fact, Digicel's marketing director Ben Atherton is delighted that Stanford has raised the bar with his 20-20 cricket competition which ended last Sunday in Antigua.

Responding to a question at yesterday's spectacular launch of the 2006-2007 Digicel Caribbean Cup at the Terra Nova Hotel here, Atherton said the Irish Telecommunications giants were not pressured into scaling similar financial heights as those set by Stanford.

"Stanford is very interested in cricket and he's involved a lot of the legends of West Indies cricket in the management of that competition which I think is a good thing and he's given development money into the local boards which is also a good thing," Atherton said.

Stanford pumped US$28 million into his fast-paced, abbreviated version of one-day cricket, with a first prize of US$1 million.

Digicel, who came on board with a four-year sponsorship deal of regional football in 2004, are also pumping a million-dollar figure into this year's competition but Atherton declined to disclose the exact amount

"We are a private company and we don't talk about what we spend in the public domain but I can certainly say that a significant seven-figure sum is being spent on the competition," Atherton said.

He said his company would also be paying for broadcast of the matches with key highlight packages in the preliminary rounds and live coverage of the final.

The tournament, with a record 25 teams contesting 73 matches, kicks off on September 2 and ends on February 11 with the finals in Trinidad and Tobago.

The winner's first prize has been substantially increased to US$120 000 and for the first time, Atherton disclosed, that qualifying group winners would also receive prize money.

The other major prizes are US$70 000, US$50 000 and US$ 30 000 for the second, third and fourth-placed teams respectively.

This is an increase of US$70 000 as last year, the top four teams pocketed US$100 000, $50 000, $30 000 and $20 000 respectively.

In addition, each of the ten host countries will now receive a subsistence cheque for US$10 000 and the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which is hosting the eight-team finals from January 13 to February 11, will receive a further US$150 000 bonus.