ING to end 14-year association with cricket

Cricket Australia and ING today announced the 2005-06 season would be ING's last as a major sponsor of Australia's domestic one-day competition. The decision marks the end of one of the longest relationships in Australian sport.

The current seven-year sponsorship concludes at the end of the upcoming season, and after careful consideration, ING has decided not to enter a new contract so it can focus on its other marketing programs.

ING began the sponsorship under its old name of Mercantile Mutual for the 1992-93 season and continued the sponsorship after the brand change to ING in 2001.

James Sutherland, chief executive of Cricket Australia, said, "We completely understand the reasons why ING will not be renewing its contract after the coming season. It has been a highly successful partnership for both parties, and we are very grateful for their support."

"ING has been a terrific partner to work with and they have certainly brought a number of new innovations to the game such as the `Hit the Sign' competition, which has added a lot of interest for both the players and spectators alike.

"The ING Cup is the world's strongest domestic one-day cricket competition and is an important part of our planning for our 2007 World Cup defence in the West Indies.

Sutherland added, "Our plans for the competition, including new ways of presenting it to a wider public, will add to the competition's value in the sponsorship market place and offer a new commercial partner an exciting time to be joining the game in Australia."

Explaining the decision, chief executive officer ING, Paul Bedbrook said: "ING is delighted with its long association with the game and proud to have contributed to the great success of the one-day domestic competition, now synonymous with the name - ING Cup.

"It has been a great partnership in every sense. We have worked together to bring new ideas to the game, taken top level cricket to local communities from Bankstown to Ballarat, and helped put in place strong foundations for developing Australian one-day cricket.

"As a company we have benefited greatly from our involvement and it has been a central to our brand promotion. We have made a commercial decision to focus on other marketing programs and therefore have decided that we cannot make another long-term commitment at the conclusion of our existing contract.

"We are looking forward to our final season which we believe will be as exciting as ever, and a celebration of our 14-year partnership."