England preparing the Wright way

All-rounder Luke Wright has stressed England are building up for the winner-takes-all Stanford 20/20 for 20 encounter as they would any other match.

According to the 23-year-old Sussex player, the £500,000-a-man on offer to the winners in the first match between England and the Stanford All Stars, on November 1 in Antigua, was bottom of the agenda when the squad met up last week for a rowing session on the Thames at Henley.

He admits the prize money is "life-changing" but insists the players are more focused on the winter schedule, which includes Tests and one-day internationals against India and West Indies.

Wright said they will treat the inaugural Stanford match as "just another game", stating: "It's not the reason why I got into cricket.

"From a young age I wanted to play for my country - but no-one can turn away from the money. Obviously it is life-changing and we are very privileged to be in that position but we've won nothing at the minute and we could win nothing.

Sussex all-rounder Luke Wright spoke at the launch of the ECB's Howzat! initiative at Lord's yesterday

"It's a good game to play in, there's a lot of pressure and a lot of people watching so it should put us in good stead for the rest of the winter.

"Speaking to the lads and the way everyone viewed it, it is just another game that happens. The bigger picture was the main cricket.

"Yes, everyone's talking about it as a big game because of the financial side but in a cricketing context it's the lowest on the priority.

"We've just got to enjoy this game and see what happens but there was a bigger picture. Obviously, we've got the Ashes (next summer) and to win out in India in the one-dayers.

"We went through what the next 12 months are about. There are some seriously big games coming up and it was about looking at what we want to achieve in the next 12 months.

"We put on the board all the cricket to come and just went through how big it is going to be. We just went through how we were going to tackle it.”

One of the main targets for the squad is the ICC World Twenty20 which comes to England next summer and one-day specialist Wright said: "That and the Ashes are huge.

"But, for myself, that's the pinnacle really. We saw how good it was out in South Africa and to have it in front of the crowd in England and, seeing how well it's gone in , it's a massive tournament for us and we're desperate to win it."