ICC announces sponsors for ICC World Twenty20 South Africa 2007

The ICC today announced a range of partners for its inaugural ICC World Twenty20 tournament, set to take place in South Africa next month.

It confirmed telecommunications giant Reliance as Global Partner, leading real estate company Emaar MGF as Global Partner, the world's leading mobile handset manufacturer Nokia as Global Partner, and global soft drinks and snacks partner Pepsi.

Yahoo! was confirmed as the official partner, internet website and portal.

Four South Africa-based local sponsors were also announced: Standard Bank of South Africa - financial services, South Africa Tourism, Southern Sun Hotels and Imperial Car Rental.

Other sponsors for the event are to be announced in due course.

Commenting on the announcement, ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed said: "The ICC is delighted to welcome these outstanding companies as partners for the ICC World Twenty20 event in South Africa.

"They represent a great cross-section of organisations with some continuing lengthy associations with the game of cricket while others are new to the sport or ICC events.

"They also represent an outstanding mix of local sponsors and also sponsors with global reach and appeal, something that emphasises cricket's immense popularity around the world.

"Their commitment to the game, together with that of our official global broadcast partner ESPN STAR Sports, will help to ensure cricket's long-term future by helping to underpin everything we and our members wish to achieve.

"The fact the ICC has been able to attract organisations of this quality is testament to both cricket's enduring appeal and the excitement generated by this new Twenty20 format.

"In return for their commitment, we believe our sponsors will receive extensive value thanks to ESPN STAR Sports' extensive rights agreements, which will ensure coverage of the tournament in more than 110 countries.

"These sponsorships are a further indication of the current good health of the game of cricket," added Mr Speed.

The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 South Africa 2007 involves 12 teams - the 10 ICC Full Members plus leading Associate sides Kenya and Scotland - in 27 matches across 14 days at three venues, Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

The tournament begins with hosts South Africa playing the West Indies at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 11 September and culminates with the final at the same venue on 24 September.

Tickets for certain matches at the tournament are still available. For tickets to the tournament visit www.computicket.com

The tournament is the first of 18 ICC events over the organisation's new commercial period of 2007 - 2015. The period includes two ICC Cricket World Cup tournaments, in the Asian sub-continent (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) in 2011 and Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) four years later.

Further details of sponsor activations before and during the tournament will be announced in due course.

ICC's sponsors expressed delight at their association with the ICC World Twenty20 tournament.

Mr Sanjay Behl, Head of Branding, Reliance Communications, said: "We are delighted to be a global sponsor of the first edition of ICC World Twenty20.

"Reliance Communications, a flagship company of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, is India's number-one integrated telecom service provider and we are committed to supporting cricket, which is the number one passion of a billion Indians."

Sanjay Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer of Emaar MGF, said: "The glorious game of cricket is today opening a new chapter with the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 and Emaar-MGF is proud to be a part of this great moment.

"Twenty20 not only represents the distilled essence of power and performance in cricket, it represents pace, dynamism and quick results with grace and style.

"Across the world, Emaar has stood for these very same values as the company has, in a very short period, built whole new worlds with speed, grace, style and commitment.

"Twenty20 will bring the game even closer to the hearts of cricket lovers and we are delighted to be a part of this exciting new format."

Mr Devinder Kishore, Director Marketing, Nokia India said: "We are delighted to be one of the Global Partners of this ICC World Twenty20, which will give us this exciting and interactive platform to connect with our young consumers.

"Youth constitutes a large percentage of Nokia's addressable market and we have been consistently bringing out initiatives that help Indian young people 'connect to their passions'."

Pearl Uppal, Director, Advertising Sales, Yahoo! India, said: "We are delighted to be associated with the first ICC World Twenty20 tournament as the online partner. A unique microsite powered by Yahoo! India will capture all the action and excitement of this new cricket format.

"Yahoo! India Cricket has been providing online information including podcasts to cricket fans. Cricket today has a global appeal and the new Twenty20 format will be further popularised with Yahoo!'s global reach of more than 500 million users."

Sarah-Anne Orphanides, Director Group Marketing Standard Bank, said: "As South Africa's longest standing cricket sponsor, Standard Bank successfully launched 20-over cricket in 2004 and helped to change the cricket landscape by capturing the imagination of cricket spectators and attracting new fans. We were therefore delighted when the ICC awarded this prestigious international event to South Africa.

"Standard Bank's partnership with Cricket South Africa in developing the Pro20 format has set benchmarks globally and we are confident that the translation of the many marketing elements familiar to the South African cricket public will be well received by the international audience at the ICC World Twenty20."

Neil Fraser, Director of Sales and Marketing, Southern Sun, said: "Southern Sun, official hotel group to the United Cricket Board of SA and Cricket South Africa for the past 15 years, is proud to be associated with this inaugural ICC World Twenty20 Tournament.

"As Southern Africa's leading hotel group, Southern Sun has established itself as a proudly South African icon of excellence and innovation, hosting many international visiting sports teams over the years.

"We sincerely believe that our knowledge, experience and enthusiasm in hosting sporting teams and events will contribute towards the overall success of this fantastic feast of cricket!"

Megan Nicholas - Sales and Marketing Director for Imperial Car Rental-Europcar Corporate, said: "Imperial Car Rental-Europcar are proud to be associated with the ICC World Twenty20.

"Through our transportation and logistical sponsorship, we will ensure the ICC has the facilities and back-up to host a truly world-class event and (we) have no doubt that the tournament will bring great amounts of entertainment for spectators and cricket lovers alike."

About Reliance Communications: Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM), founded by the late Shri. Dhirubhai H Ambani (1932-2002), is the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG). The Reliance ADAG currently has a market capitalization of more than US$42billion, net worth in excess of US$10billion, cash flows of US$2.25billion, net profit of US$1.25billion and zero net debt.

Rated among "Asia's Top Five Most Valuable Telecom Companies", RCOM is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The company with a customer base of more than 36 million including more than 1.2 million individual overseas retail customers' ranks among the top 10 Asian telecom companies by number of customers. RCOM's corporate clientele includes 600 Indian and 250 multinational corporations, and more than 200 global carriers.

RCOM has established a pan-Indian, next generation, integrated (wireless & wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire Infocomm value chain, covering over 10,000 towns and 300,000 villages. RCOM owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 165,000km of fibre-optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region. RCOM has recently acquired Ethernet service provider Yipes Holdings Inc, USA, through its subsidiary FLAG Telecom.

About Emaar MGF Land Limited: Emaar MGF, a joint venture between the world's leading real estate company, Emaar Properties PJSC Dubai, and one of India's leading real estate developers, MGF Developments, has brought in the largest FDI commitment in the real estate sector in India.

Emaar MGF is one of the leading Indian real estate developers with pan-India projects across residential, commercial and retail, hospitality, IT parks and SEZs, healthcare and education sectors.

The company has been instrumental in bringing the largest FDI in the Indian real estate sector. As a real estate company, Emaar MGF aims to make a real and positive impact on the lives of the people bringing in outstanding quality realty developments.

About Pepsi: PepsiCo is a world leader in convenient foods and beverages, with 2006 revenues of more than US$35billion and 168,000 employees.

Some of PepsiCo's brand names are more than 100 years old, but the corporation is relatively young. PepsiCo was founded in 1965 through the merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay. Tropicana was acquired in 1998 and PepsiCo merged with The Quaker Oats Company, including Gatorade, in 2001.

PepsiCo offers product choices to meet a broad variety of needs and preference - from fun-for-you items to product choices that contribute to healthier lifestyles.

PepsiCo's mission is: "To be the world's premier consumer products company focused on convenient foods and beverages. We seek to produce healthy financial rewards to investors as we provide opportunities for growth and enrichment to our employees, our business partners and the communities in which we operate. And in everything we do, we strive for honesty, fairness and integrity."

About Nokia : Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations.

About Yahoo! India: Yahoo! India (www.yahoo.co.in), launched in June 2000, has established itself as the pioneering and leading internet portal providing value added services for web users in India and users abroad with special interest in India. Yahoo! India seeks to provide online products and services essential to users' lives, and offers a full range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with internet users globally. It presents a deep array of communications, commerce and content services.

About Standard Bank: Standard Bank has been one of Cricket South Africa's longest-standing commercial partners and its associations with the game include sponsorship of South Africa's one-day international and Twenty20 teams. It is a team, event and development sponsor of Cricket South Africa.

The Standard Bank Group is one of the big four full-service South African banks. The group operates in a broad range of banking and related financial services and has a wide representation which spans 18 African countries and 21 countries outside of Africa with a largely emerging-markets focus. Standard Bank has 712 branches in South Africa and 239 in the rest of Africa.

The Standard Bank Group is the largest South African banking group ranked by assets and earnings. The group had total assets of more than R970 billion (approximately US$139billion) at 31 December 2006 and employed more than 42,000 (including Liberty) people worldwide. Standard Bank's market capitalisation at 31 December 2006 was R129 billion (approximately US$18billion).

Standard Bank's equity is widely spread. The Public Investment Corporation is the biggest beneficial shareholder (13 per cent) of the group. In 2004, Standard Bank Group sold an effective 10 per cent interest in its South African banking operations to a broad-based grouping of black entities. The transaction enabled Standard Bank to meet the direct ownership requirements set out in the Financial Sector Charter.

About South Africa Tourism: South African Tourism markets South Africa's scenic beauty, diverse wildlife, kaleidoscope of cultures and heritages, the great outdoors, sport and adventure opportunities, eco-tourism and conference facilities.

Its vision is for South Africa to be the preferred tourist destination in the world, in order to maximize the economic potential of tourism for the country and its people.

Its mission is to develop and implement a world-class international tourism marketing strategy for South Africa.

In pursuance of this, South African Tourism will facilitate the strategic alignment of the provinces and industry in support of the global marketing of tourism to South Africa; remove all obstacles to tourism growth; build a tourist-friendly nation; and ensure that tourism benefits all South Africans.

About Southern Sun: Founded in 1969, Southern Sun Hotels has 38 years of experience in providing great hospitality to its local and international guests.

Southern Sun's portfolio of hotels provides world-class accommodation across all markets, and offers the widest distribution of hotels in South Africa in major urban centres and key leisure destinations. The hotels are designed to meet the needs of all guests, whether they are travelling for business or leisure.

South African hotels are renowned for their efficient, warm, friendly service. Add to this the finest local and international cuisine, quality accommodation, excellent sport and leisure facilities and convenient business facilities and you are describing Southern Sun hotels.

Southern Sun hotels regularly win top international awards, another clear indicator that South African hotels compare favourably with worldwide standards of excellence. The Southern Sun Hotels group enjoys a top-50 ranking amongst all international hotel groups.

About Imperial Car Rental: Imperial Car Rental is currently the largest home-grown, South African-born car rental brand. It was started by Carol Scott in 1979 with a humble fleet of nine cars in a small office in downtown Johannesburg.

Imperial's philosophy has always been to operate with an entrepreneurial spirit, thinking big, but with the attitude and commitment of a small business. Personal service and attention to detail has been the foundation of the company with a focus on delivering impressive customer service.

Imperial currently operates a fleet of more than 15,000 vehicles in more than 100 locations across eight African countries namely South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia. Its most recent branch opening was in the largely untapped market of Soweto.

Through the decades, Imperial has become a household name and remains one of the strongest brands in the car rental industry.

Imperial Car Rental's vision is that it wants to be so good that either you are driving your own car or you are an Imperial customer. Its mission is to be recognised globally as the benchmark for service delivery in mobility solutions and its values are imaginative, interactive, personal, passion and instant.