No sponsor yet for domestic one-day competition

Cricket Australia remains confident its domestic one-day competition will have a naming-rights sponsor by the time the first match is played next Wednesday. The 45-over split-innings format is being promoted under the generic National One-Day Cup title, after Ford Ranger's deal came to an end last summer.

If a new sponsor is not found, it would be the first time in the competition's 41-year history that it would be played under a non-branded name. Cricket Australia's general manager of public affairs, Peter Young, said the worldwide economic situation had made it a tough environment for sponsors.

"As of now we don't have a sponsor," he told ESPNcricinfo on Thursday. "The feedback we got from the market was that things are a bit tight with the residual effect of the global financial crisis. However, once the controversy, if you like, took off about the new format we found that the interest seemed to warm up a bit.

"At the moment it's the National One-Day Cup, which is a generic title, but we're hoping that by the time we bowl the first ball we'll have a naming-rights sponsor and that will then flow out for the balance of the season. The discussions are at an advanced stage."

The one-day competition, which features a range of new rules, will begin at the Gabba next Wednesday when Queensland take on Tasmania. The main alteration is the separation of each team's innings into 20 and 25-over sections, which Cricket Australia hopes will be popular with fans.