Cricket board unveils planned sponsorships

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced a shopping list of new sponsorships, based on what survived of former Tesco chief Lord MacLaurin’s report into the future of the game.

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced a shopping list of new sponsorships, based on what survived of former Tesco chief Lord MacLaurin’s report into the future of the game.

A new knockout domestic championship, currently called the 38 County Board Competition, will be introduced next season, and will seek a title sponsor, for about 100,000 a year.

Also, the ECB is looking for a replacement worth about 200,000 for whisky brand Whyte & Mackay to sponsor its Domestic Cricket Rankings, which track the performances of best players throughout the season.

In addition, the sport will seek sponsorship opportunities for one-day internationals from the year 2000, which the ECB has priced at 1m.

The ECB is looking for five more sponsors for the 1999 Cricket World Cup which will be played in England. These sponsors are being asked to be pay between 2m and 2.5m each.

The sports body and BSkyB are jointly looking for a sponsor for the first one-day triangular tournament, against South Africa and Sri Lanka next year (MW October 9).

There are new under 19 and indoor six-a-side competitions, which will take sponsorships worth between 50,000 and 75,000.

ECB marketing director Terry Blake says: “The revitalised structure of the game has provided new sponsorship and commercial opportunities from the playground to the test arena.”

Figures from research body Target Group Index claim that in the UK cricket is played by over 1 million men and 62,000 women, and is watched on TV by 9 million people.