Graphic: All you need to know about $20m match

The chance to earn $1million for three hours' work is rarely offered, not even to Jonathan Ross, but while England and the Stanford Superstars can contemplate getting their hands on a life-changing sum of money, the build-up to tonight's match in Antigua has led many to doubt the wisdom of the ECB getting into bed with Allen Stanford, the Texan tycoon, who is bankrolling the jamboree.

From complaints about the quality of the pitch and the floodlights to uncomfortable footage of Stanford fraternising - unwittingly, he said - with the players' wives, it has not been a PR success.

Yet while there have been reports that the ECB is reviewing its five-year deal with Stanford, who has put up $20million (about $12.4million) for today's winner-takes-all match, the American insisted that the competition will prove to be highly profitable.

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• Graphic: All you need to know about $20m match

Stanford, who fell in love with cricket when he started investing in the Caribbean in the early 1990s, told The Times that, while this year's tournament will operate at a loss, the Stanford Super Series will break even next year and then make money.

“I'm very excited about the future. We've got a unique model here,” Stanford said. “We'll recoup about 60 per cent of our money this year. Next year we'll look to break even, maybe make a little, and by the third year we'll make a substantial profit.”

He added that he would have made a 70 per cent return this year had he not had to spend $2.5million fighting a legal battle with Digicel, the sponsor of the West Indies team, over advertising rights. Asked whether the project had long-term viability, Stanford said: “Hell, yeah. By the end of the five years, we'll be making a lot of money.”

Stanford reckons that he will recoup more than half of the $20million prize-money this year in international television rights. He has persuaded ESPN, the American broadcaster, to show the match at 2pm tomorrow, but it will be hard to crack the US market.

The Texan added that the tournament would generate millions of dollars in publicity for his asset management company, which has earned him a personal fortune estimated at $2.2billion. However, some believe that his brand has been affected by the adverse reaction to Stanford's crass self-publicity. According to one leading sports marketing expert, the Stanford extravaganza has been a “shambles” and may have damaged the reputation of the Stanford Group.

“For all the good intentions and excitement about England versus the Superstars, this has been the best lesson in how to damage a brand overnight that I have seen for a long time,” Steve Martin, the chief executive at M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment, said. “Getting too close to the event is not the way to act. It makes it gimmicky and loses him all credibility for what was a good concept.”

Martin added that Stanford “may well have quadrupled the brand exposure of his company with this, but he will have diluted it by ten with the tone of the exposure”.

The biggest disappointment for Stanford will be if the players have not enjoyed themselves and comments by members of the England team suggest that they have not. Kevin Pietersen, the captain, said that “the longer this week goes on, the more you just want to get it over with”, adding that he was “not fussed” about winning the match.

Martin said: “Ultimately, his [Stanford's] best market was going to be the players endorsing it - saying how fabulous it was - and that couldn't be farther from the truth.”