Ball-tampering: Cricket Australia loses sponsor, branding deals quashed

The Australian cricket team lost a major sponsor and a host of large companies tore up branding deals with individual players on Thursday, as the fallout of a ball-tampering scandal tore into the financial core of the country’s favourite pastime.

Darren Lehmann said he would quit as coach of the scandal-tainted team after the fourth and final Test of a series in South Africa.

Fund manager Magellan Financial Group binned a three-year team naming rights deal, only seven months old. Sports apparel giant ASICS Corp and Commonwealth Bank of Australia joined other firms in dropping players caught in the scandal which has shaken cricket.

The quick financial fallout to the ball-tampering last Saturday in South Africa, 11,000 km away, shows the corporate sector’s eagerness  to distance itself from scandal at a time when the internet and social media can keep public criticism alive seemingly indefinitely.

“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,” said Magellan chief executive Hamish Douglass in the statement. “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.”