South Africa lose a major sponsor

The United Cricket Board of South Africa is set to lose a major sponsor - MTN, the cellphone company - after it refused to renew its contract which expires in September, citing excessively high demands from the board. According to a report on the News24 website, South African cricket could be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy within the next 18 months if the financial condition doesn't improve.

"We do not have unlimited funds and the question had to be asked whether we can put our money to better use," said Victor Rahkale, a senior sponsorship manager at MTN. "A decision was taken to focus on soccer and the World Cup tournament in 2010 in particular. Soccer is the ideal vehicle to support our involvement in the rest of Africa and our expansion into that market."

However, Rahkale didn't rule out the possibility of negotiations in future. "If South African cricket can come up with a more affordable option, we could look at it again sometime in the future."

MTN sponsored South African cricket to the tune of about R10m every year and the total annual contribution was about R20m. During the seven-year involvement, MTN contributed more than R100m, sponsoring the Test side to club tournaments and development programs.

Steve Elworthy, the commercial manager of Cricket South Africa, hinted that Castle Lager may be appointed as the sole sponsor of the national side in future, and hoped that MTN would continue their cellphone contract sponsorship of the board. "We still have 083 numbers and hopefully we can get MTN to stay on board as far as our cellphones go," said Elworthy. "We are now negotiating with Castle Lager - the other Test sponsor - about a package to sponsor Test cricket of the next three years and hopefully this will include an increased financial contribution."

Elworthy further added that they were negotiating with South African Airways to become the new sponsor of amateur cricket.