Vodafone returns as Australia men's Test naming-rights sponsor

Vodafone will be the naming rights partner for Australian men’s Test cricket as part of a three-year deal which will also see the telecommunications company associated with the Women’s Big Bash and the Australia Women’s team.

They previously sponsored men’s Test cricket from 2001 until the 2012-13 season, starting under their earlier brands Orange and 3, and will replace Domain who pulled out in February midway through a four-year deal.

The brand will also continue its association with the Adelaide Strikers across the BBL and WBBL.

In late 2018, Vodafone worked with Steven Smith on an advertising campaign while he was serving his one-year ban following the ball-tampering scandal.

The announcement comes at a time when Cricket Australia are working to come up with a schedule for the summer amid the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and facing considerable pressure from their broadcast partners, significantly Channel 7 whose chief executive has made his frustrations public.

The season will start later this month with the New Zealand Women’s team touring for three T20Is and three ODIs which will be played entirely at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.

“What better way to start than with the opening international matches of the summer with the ODI series against New Zealand in late-September, followed by the second standalone WBBL which will feature the best female cricketers from around the world,” Nick Hockley, the Cricket Australia interim CEO, said.

“We all know how important the men’s Test summer is to Australian cricket, and we want to thank Vodafone for supporting these matches as our Test naming rights partner.”

The men’s season is likely to face considerable restructuring from the initial schedule announced in May with the possibility that it will begin with limited-overs matches against India before the one-off Test against Afghanistan followed by four Tests against India.

The WBBL, which is due to start on October 17, is set to be moved into a hub due to the ongoing travel and border restrictions and the BBL is expected to follow a similar model from early December. There is a one-day series against India Women on the schedule for mid-January and a brief limited-overs tour by the New Zealand men’s side later that month.

“There’s a huge amount of work going on and we’re increasingly optimistic of delivering a full summer of cricket,” Nick Hockley, the Cricket Australia interim CEO, said. “It’s the complexity of the logistics, and it’s also making sure that we’re managing the risks. That can’t be under-estimated.

“Obviously we’ve got to put the safety and the wellbeing of everyone involved first. We have also got the added complexity of bringing people from overseas and the inevitable quarantine arrangements that are required to bring people in safely. We’re well advanced in working through all those details.”