Sponsor fears for tennis and cricket

TWO of the biggest events of the English sporting summer are in danger of being without a title sponsor for the first time in four decades.

England’s domestic Test series and the Queen’s Club tennis tournament are struggling to find backers. Tickets for Queen’s are already on sale, but the Test match ticket printing is delayed by the sponsorship void. Stella Artois backed Queen’s from 1979 to 2008 and Aegon since 2009.

Cornhill supported Test cricket from 1978 to 2001 with Npower and Investec being the other blue-chip backers. The ECB have only themselves to blame for losing Investec halfway through a 10-year deal when they made financial sector rivals NatWest the England team sponsors.

The ECB and LTA say there are in discussions with a number of potential backers, but such prime sporting properties struggling to find sponsors does not bode well. Meanwhile, the ECB have found a new sponsor, Vitality, to replace NatWest as sponsors of the T20 Blast.