Birmingham Phoenix tee up Castore as Hundred teams ditch New Balance
Birmingham Phoenix have agreed a kit deal with Castore for next season, with The Hundred’s long-term apparel supplier, New Balance, increasingly being phased out by the franchises that are under new ownership.
Morning Wire revealed last week that London Spirit are also dropping New Balance after the current campaign, with their new co-owners, Cricket Investor Holdings, wasting no time in striking a kit deal with Nike.
All of The Hundred’s sponsorship and commercial deals have until now been negotiated centrally by the England and Wales Cricket Board, but the New Balance contract contained a break clause triggered by a change of ownership, which has taken place at six of the eight franchises who last week signed shareholding agreements with new investors.
London Spirit are understood to have rejected an approach from Castore before opting for Nike. Instead, the British sportswear brand agreed a deal with Birmingham Phoenix, who are now co-owned by US group Knighthead, which also owns the second city’s football team.
Castore has made a big impact in cricket since being launched by Tom and Phil Beahon in 2015, and is currently the official kit suppliers of all England international teams, South Africa and West Indies, as well as Surrey, Yorkshire and Kent.
The north-west based company’s forays into football have been less successful, with Aston Villa and Newcastle United both terminating their contracts early following complaints from players about the quality of the shirts.
Castore also runs the ECB’s online shop for The Hundred, which ironically involves selling New Balance shirts for one more season at least. Castore declined to comment.
Birmingham Phoenix men and women play their first fixtures of this year’s Hundred on Friday against Trent Rockets.
Super League cashes in on lower tackle height
Super League chiefs have been able to mitigate the impact of the declining value of their main TV contract with Sky Sports by securing an improved deal with insurance provider AXA.
Rule changes introduced last year, such as lowering the legal tackle height to below the armpit, have led to a significant reduction in player injuries, an improvement Super League has been able to use to negotiate cheaper insurance premiums.
The savings have been passed on to clubs to partially offset the collapsing value of the Sky deal, which has fallen from £40m in 2021 to £20.5m in the current cycle. Clubs have received central distribution payments of £1.24m in the last two years, a drop of more than £300,000 from 2023.
Super League last week took the controversial decision to expand the competition to 14 clubs next season, but with the TV income fixed the two promoted teams will not receive any central funding, leading to concerns over their competitiveness.
Ward steps into Ferdinand shoes on TNT
TNT Sports will have a low-key replacement for Rio Ferdinand on punditry duty when it broadcasts the Community Shield between Liverpool and Crystal Palace for the first time on Sunday, the start of a four-year deal with the FA that primarily covers the men’s FA Cup.
Former Palace defender Joel Ward has been booked to appear at Wembley with TNT stalwart Steve McManaman, although the 35-year-old is not seen as a long-term successor to Ferdinand.
The former Manchester United and England defender left the company after more than a decade at the end of last season to focus on other business interests.
Lionesses give Red Roses ticket sales boost
Ticket sales for the Women’s Rugby World Cup, which begins this month, have passed 400,000 in the last week, boosted by the Lionesses’ extraordinary Euros victory over Spain and the subsequent mass celebrations on The Mall.
England’s Red Roses are hot home favourites to win the World Cup for the first time since 2014, with the final at Twickenham on 27 September expected to be an 82,000 sell-out.
Other than the opening game between England and the US at the Stadium of Light, the rest of the tournament is being staged at smaller venues such as Franklin’s Gardens in Northampton and Exeter’s Sandy Park, but it is still expected to be the best-attended women’s rugby competition ever.
Club World Cup widens chasm in Ligue 1
The potentially destabilising impact of the Fifa Club World Cup on domestic leagues is perhaps best illustrated by the ramifications of the tournament in France, where Paris Saint-Germain’s total financial dominance will be further entrenched.
PSG collected just over £100m in prize and appearance money for reaching the final of the Club World Cup, more than four times the amount they received in merit payments for winning Ligue 1.
In addition PSG banked £98m from Uefa for winning their first Champions League title earlier this summer, so their domestic rivals have been left trailing in their wake.
Day for Thorpey set for yearly re-run
Surrey CCC want to make A Day for Thorpey an annual event after raising more than £160,000 for mental health charity Mind on the second day of last week’s final Test between England and India at The Oval.
England’s players wore Thorpe’s trademark white headband during their warm-up in memory of the former England and Surrey batter, who died after being struck by a train a year ago.
The tribute day took place on what would have been Thorpe’s 56th birthday, although an exact repeat will not be possible next year as England’s Test match against New Zealand at The Oval has unusually been scheduled for June.
Surrey will hold talks with Thorpe’s family before formalising their plans, but are committed to the principle of holding an annual tribute and fundraiser.
Such events have become commonplace in cricket in recent years, with Lord’s and Edgbaston staging annual fundraisers for the Ruth Strauss Foundation and the Bob Willis Foundation at their Test matches.