Talk Cricket Blog

ECB waves goodbye to Vodafone

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:46:09 GMT

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is currently bracing itself for a very difficult year after Vodafone decided to pull the plug on its sponsorship of the England cricket team. Test sponsor, Npower, and major international backer, NatWest, have also threatened to turn their back on the nation’s most prestigious sport should the economic climate remain frosty.

It is admittedly an unlikely pairing: the second-largest mobile network operator in the world and the governing body of an age-old sport, but Vodafone and the ECB have enjoyed a long and illustrious partnership over the years.

Vodafone, who also sponsors the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team, has been an instrumental part of English cricket for almost twelve years now. The company has ploughed £16 million into the sport in the last four years alone.

The consumer director of Vodafone has stated that his company wishes to maintain its relationship with English cricket: “We are working with the ECB to develop a legacy programme at grassroots level which builds on the long-term investment we have made in the success of cricket across England and Wales."

A recent slump in annual profits has been blamed for Vodafone’s speedy departure from the sport. Recession has laid siege to much of the globe and the operator has been forced to look to redundancy as a quick-fire solution to its woes. An extensive restructuring of its marketing strategies is also on the cards.

The American billionaire, Sir Allen Stanford, has also expressed concerns about his future sponsorship of the sport after a number of PR experiments failed to produce positive results. English cricket has cost Mr. Stanford an estimated £40 million to date and the American may attempt to save face by terminating his contract with the ECB.

Pietersen keen to resolve Moores conflict

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:26:15 GMT

The conflict between England cricket captain, Kevin Pietersen, and coach, Peter Moores, will hopefully be resolved in the near future. The pair have clashed for over a year and the England captain apparently believes that the coach has contributed towards the run of poor results experienced by the England national cricket team.

Pietersen wants the issues resolved as soon as possible, since the “situation is not healthy” and is certainly not helping the stability of the team.

The captain is keen to sort everything out before the team flies out to the West Indies. During recent months, it has certainly seemed as if the England team has been divided and Pietersen has been quick to point out his desire for everybody involved with England to have the “same aims”.

David Gower, the former England captain, has spoken out about the issue which is threatening the long-term success of the national team. Gower believes that Peter Moores could be sacked, since the views of Pietersen will take priority over those of the coach. He believes that the current England captain has a big personality and will not be happy to compromise on the issues currently affecting the team.

However, this option, seen as likely by several former cricket players and sports pundits, will surely prove detrimental to the team in the long-term. It is not a healthy situation for the captain of a sports team to have such a major influence upon the coaching set-up and Pietersen’s influence may put others off applying for the job.

India's tour to Pakistan cancelled amid security fears

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:48:12 GMT

The world of cricket has already been disrupted by the horrendous terrorist attacks seen in the city of Mumbai last month, with England contemplating whether or not to complete their Test series.

It has now been revealed that India’s own plans have been interfered with, as their tour of Pakistan, scheduled for early next year, has been cancelled.

This decision was taken by cricketing officials after government advice was given on the matter, with Indian government officials stating that the tour would be unwise given the current instability in the region.

A spokesman for the Indian Cricket Board revealed that “it is not feasible to tour Pakistan” after the events of the last few weeks, particularly after the government had already cancelled a junior hockey team’s tour to Pakistan.

The Indian cricket team had been planning on taking part in three Tests, a Twenty20 international, along with five one-day matches in Pakistan, starting on the fourth of January, but the decision by the government has brought an end to these plans. Instead, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has sent out an invitation to the Sri Lankan cricket team.

The PCB has been left extremely unhappy at the recent decision by Indian officials, since severe financial losses are now a likely result. They will undoubtedly lose money which would have been granted by television bosses, since their recent deal with Ten Sports, apparently worth over 140 million dollars, stipulated that no payment will be made following the cancellation of a series.

England to donate Test fees

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:05:47 GMT

After deciding to return to India after the recent terror attacks in Mumbai, the players for the national cricket team have decided to donate fifty per cent of their match fees from the first Test against India on Thursday to charity.

The money will go towards helping the victims of the attacks and the sum is expected to be approximately thirty five thousand pounds. The England players released a long statement, which was read out by Alastair Cook, which expressed support and sympathy towards the Indian people and those affected by the terrorist attacks around the world.

Cook revealed that the players made a strong “pact” at their meeting and decided to pledge half of their match fees in a gesture of solidarity and support. Over one hundred and eighty people were killed in the attacks and some England players were understandably nervous about returning to the country earlier this week.

They were surrounded by numerous security guards upon their return and Hugh Morris, the boss of the ECB, revealed that the team has received “excellent support from the commissioner of police here in Chennai and the Board of Control for Cricket in India”.

Now that the players have arrived safely back in India, they have announced their intention to focus solely upon the upcoming matches against the national team.

This may be difficult given the recent events but each and every player is determined to do their bit to help life in India return to normal as soon as possible.

England fly back into India - will play out Test series

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:40:41 GMT

England's cricketers are happy and that means that the Test series in India is on. It was always going to be a difficult tour anyway as the Indian side are fresh off a beatdown to the best team in the world in Australia but the terror attacks in Mumbai seemed to put pay to the rest of the tour.

England players returned home after abandoning the final two ODI's but promised to return for the two Test match series. The players have stuck to their world and after lots of mumbling and grumbling the full team is flying back into India to prepare for the first Test in Chennai which starts in the early hours of Thursday morning UK time.

The second Test which was scheduled for Mumbai has unsurprisingly been moved and will now to staged in Mohali. India will be heavy favourites for the two Test series but the fact that England have decided to go back has been greeted with widespread glee across the country.

As everyone who is reading this will know, Cricket in India is where it is at. Cricketers are revered as gods as it were. Going to cricket is like going to see your heroes and these guys are more famous than Bollywood stars. For England to be happy to go back into the country that has just experienced such an attack is impressive on many levels.

Going back to the cricket then I do fear for England. I am sure that in the back of some players' mind they'll just be wanting to get in and get out and not overly care about the result. This is something that captain Kevin Pietersen will have to be wary of but it is a very short series. It starts on Thursday and the players will be back in time to celebrate Christmas with their families.

Flintoff may join IPL

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:08:57 GMT

England cricket star, Andrew Flintoff, has revealed his desire to join the Indian Premier League next season and has spoken of the motivating factor lying behind this desire. Flintoff believes that the England cricket team would benefit greatly from more Twenty20 experience.

His words came after England were humbled by an exciting Indian side in the one-day series last weekend. The player believes that the Indian players were able to bring the experience gained in the Indian Premier League to the “50-over game” and believes that such experience has been nothing but positive for the team.

Flintoff is keen to “have a go at it on the Indian pitches” alongside the players in the Indian team and other cricketers who compete regularly on an international stage. The performances of the England cricket team recently have shown that something certainly needs to be done and changes need to be made.

Flintoff believes that the talent is already present in the England team but the flair shown by India could be achieved as well if the players were able to play Twenty20 cricket at the top level in the Indian Premier League. The cricketer thinks that the “basics” are already there but that general confidence is sadly lacking.

Flintoff also revealed that he is not the only England player to hold such a desire. England captain, Kevin Pietersen, has also expressed an urge to join the Indian Premier League and Flintoff believes that such a move may soon become an “important development” in the life of any cricket player.