West Indies [Images] cricket received a much-needed boost after an Antigua-based businessman announced plans to pump $28 million into a regional Twenty20 competition.

Texan millionaire Allen Stanford outlined the tournament, which will start next year and involve 17 Caribbean nations.

The shortened format of the game has already proved popular with young fans around the world and Stanford believes it would fuel flagging interest in one of cricket's traditional hot beds.

"My vision for the Stanford Twenty20 tournament is that it will be the catalyst for a resurgence of love for the game, that it will signal the return to the glory days," he was quoted as saying on the West Indies Cricket Board website.

"I have been a part of the Caribbean community for over 20 years and I have witnessed first hand the power that the game of cricket wields over the people in this region."

Plans for the tournament, which would feature a $1 million top prize as well as a $100,000 windfall for the boards of the competing nations, were outlined at a lunch attended by West Indian greats including Garfield Sobers and Viv Richards [Images].

Stanford's investment would also include thousands of dollars for facilities and coaching across the region.

The first tournament is scheduled for next August and September, and Stanford said he hoped it would reverse what he called a "slow erosion of faith in the sport which has given way to feelings of disillusionment and low expectations."

"West Indies cricket is an almost tangible force which can unify an entire country, an entire group of people, no matter the differences that might exist off the field," he said.

"The energy, the pride, the passion that cricket has inspired in the people of the Caribbean is not only moving but infectious."

West Indies dominated world cricket in the 1970s and 1980s but have been in steady decline since, with a lack of investment and the popularity of other sports often blamed.

Despite winning the ICC [Images] Champions Trophy in 2004, West Indies have struggled in Tests, losing 13 of their last 18 matches, including two heavy defeats in Sri Lanka [Images] this year.

In the latest ICC world rankings they sit a lowly eighth, with only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe below them.

West Indies are due to host the 2007 World Cup. They won the first two tournaments in 1975 and 1979.