Australians Driving Up Sponsorship Row

Rival car sponsor closing in on Aussie skipper's signature.

Ben Horne.

Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Monday, 17 July 2017.

PTG 2204-11162.

The 'Mercedes Benz' company are closing in on the signature of Australian Test captain as Cricket Australia (CA) continues talks with major sponsors concerned, in this case official sponsor ’Toyota’, about being ambushed in the pay war.  Negotiations between CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) are set to continue in Melbourne on Monday (PTG 2203-11155, 16 July 2017), however, the game is living on a knife’s edge and cricket’s official sponsors are demanding peace as a matter of urgency.  

Last week fellow Smith’s team mate Mitchell Starc publicly announced his new personal arrangement with an ‘Audi’ dealership on social media (PTG 2195-1115, 9 July 2017), a move which reportedly angered ‘Toyota’, one of CA’s top corporate partners, and created unease inside cricket’s multimillion dollar sponsorship stable.  It was arguably one of the catalysts for the long overdue progress made between CA and the players’ association last week that must now accelerate again.

Smith’s manager is overseas in India and could not be contacted to confirm if a car dealership deal has already been finalised for his client, however, the mere fact the Australian skipper and its biggest name is being circled by ‘Toyota' rivals led by ‘Mercedes', shines another searing spotlight on the cut-throat importance being placed on cricket resolving its pay dispute this week.

Of course, Smith is doing nothing out of the ordinary by signing with a car dealership – in fact it happens regularly with CA approval – however, the key difference is that with no Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in place ‘Toyota' are not protected in any way and players are no longer banned from doing public promotion like Starc did.

CA points out that players are only hurting themselves in the long term by potentially jeopardising the support of major sponsors who fund the deep pockets of the game and enable them to be paid millions.  It’s understood CA continue to update sponsors on the MOU situation, but insist that for many partners it remains business as usual, and they’re still holding regular meetings about non pay-deal related matters as well.

Fast food company ‘KFC’ said last week they were calling on CA and the Australian Cricketers Association to resolve their dispute ASAP for the sake of the game and it’s understood other leading sponsors are also fed up (PTG 2197-11127, 11 July 2017).  ACA general manager Tim Cruickshank will fly to India on Wednesday to meet with media corporations interested in buying the intellectual property of the Australian cricket team (PTG 2194-11111, 9 July 2017), and it’s understood Smith’s manager will meet with some of those same companies as well.

CA and the ACA are still a long way apart, but the feeling is a breakthrough could happen at any time – and if that occurs, an in principle agreement could be reached almost immediately and the Test team could still tour Bangladesh in August.