Sponsors dump Australian cricket and disgraced players
Magellan has quit its naming rights deal with Australian Test cricket, calling the ball-tampering scandal “inconsistent with our values”.
Magellan sponsorship was a backdrop to the summer's Ashes series. Photo: Jason O'Brien/PA Wire
The ASX-listed financial services provider said its three-year sponsorship of Australia’s home Tests, which only began with the most recent Ashes series, had been based on shared values and reputations of integrity, leadership, dedication.
But co-founder and chief executive Hamish Douglass on Thursday said the scandal, which has led to the suspension of captain Steve Smith, vice captain David Warner and opener Cameron Bancroft, was unacceptable.
“A conspiracy by the leadership of the Australian Men’s Test cricket team, which broke the rules with a clear intention to gain an unfair advantage during the third test in South Africa, goes to the heart of integrity,” Douglass said.
“Regrettably, these recent events are so inconsistent with our values that we are left with no option but to terminate our ongoing partnership with Cricket Australia.”
Douglass said the decision had been taken with great sadness.
“We were delighted with the recent Magellan Ashes Series sponsorship and it is with a heavy heart that we have to end our partnership in these circumstances,” he said.
Neither Magellan nor Cricket Australia gave a figure for the sponsorship deal when announcing it in August last year.
But Magellan’s annual report released in August said its marketing expenses that would increase by between $8 million and $8.5 million in the 2018 financial year largely due to the Test sponsorship.
It only spent $3 million on marketing in 2017.
The three sanctioned players are also losing sponsors in the wake of the scandal.
Today, sporting goods company ASICS said it could not tolerate the decisions and actions of Warner and Bancroft and had terminated its sponsorship of the pair.
“The decisions and actions taken by David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are not something that ASICS tolerates and are contrary to the values the company stands for,” the company said in a statement.
Smith was today dumped by Sanitarium as an “ambassador” for its Weet-Bix breakfast cereal.
The company said Weet-Bix ambassadors represent brand values of trust and integrity.
“Based on the ball tampering incident and the findings of Cricket Australia’s investigation, we are unable to continue our relationship with Steve Smith,” Sanitarium Australia general manager Todd Saunders said in a statement.
Electronics company LG dropped Warner on Wednesday ahead of Cricket Australia’s announcement of a 12-month ban for the opening batsman.
– with AAP
