Cricket's new mogul is thriving on adversity

The Texan has seen an opportunity and gone for it just as his grandfather did back in 1932, when the barber-turned-insurance-salesman set up Stanford Financial at the height of the Great Depression.

When Sir Allen joined the business in the early 1980s he helped his father to capitalise on a leap in oil prices that caused Houston's real estate market to overheat. When the oil bubble burst, Standfords were able to buy dozens of properties at knock down prices.

Over the next 10 years, as the economy and real estate began to recover the Stanfords added to their millions. Sir Allen's current wealth, estimated to be more that the gross domestic product of Antigua, has been largely unaffected by the credit crunch as he avoided investing in subprime mortgages and he is now capitalising on the problems by looking to acquire depressed financial services companies.

His private life is as colourful as his business one. He lives now in the Caribbean and spends less than 90 days a year in America for tax reasons. He has six children but is separated from their mother.

The 6ft 4in tall Stanford is so obssessed with detail that he once hired two historians to produce a 180-page dossier that proves he is the sixth twice removed cousin of Leland Stanford founder of the legendary Stanford University in the US.

He has already claimed one victory in his effort to turn his fellow Americans on to cricket but it has come at a huge cost. Fort Collins, Colorado, was picked by Stanford as a town that could become "cricket crazy" because of its lack of exposure to the sport.

The $3.5m mission was a qualified success and after five weeks of being bombarded with ads and promotions, six per cent of those surveyed said they would be willing to order cricket on pay-per-view.

Fort Collins has a population of 125,700, implying that Stanford spent around $464 on each convert.

Small change for a man with a mission.