Now cricket fights to make up lost ground

THE sun was yet to rise in Sydney’s west at 6.30am yesterday and already David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Peter Handscomb were out shooting a commercial for Asics.

By 10am a feeding frenzy had broken out over Big Bash League signatures and later in the day there were strong indications that young leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson was in the box seat to join the Test squad to tour Bangladesh and potentially oust Ashton Agar for a place in the attack.

The ink had barely dried on the game’s long overdue heads of agreement and in an instant cricket woke from its restless hibernation.

The war is over but there is lost ground that must urgently be made up and that was no more obvious than out in Blacktown where Warner, Maxwell and Handscomb posed shivering in the new Asics Test, one-day and T20 apparel — all with empty real estate on the chest where a major sponsor’s logo should be.

MasterCard is rumoured to be one sponsor in the running for naming rights on Australian shirts, and Cricket Australia hopes to unveil new corporate partners soon. The companies’ refusal to sign on the dotted line until the game’s future was secured was one of the main factors that forced a result in the bitter stalemate between CA and the ACA.

Already Asics’ ads will go to air and print without the major sponsor’s logo displayed on its shirts, but the official apparel brand is desperate for confirmation soon so it can start producing the official replica merchandise that will spin cash registers all summer.

New beer partner XXXX has a carton ready to go displaying the Australian bowling attack, but it hadn’t been allowed to press print until the parties reached a deal.

The moment state and BBL offices opened their doors yesterday morning they also braced for instant mayhem.

It’s believed most BBL clubs have only eight players signed for the coming season and they must now turn non-binding agreements negotiated during the pay deal standoff into certified contracts. However, it’s believed some players have used the non-binding nature of their talks to test the waters with rivals.