Despite public outrage, sponsors should avoid pulling cricket spend in haste
As Cricket Australia goes into crisis mode following revelations of cheating, Andrew Woodward reminds sponsors that however bad things get, time can heal (almost) all wounds.
“I have moved beyond shock. I am disgusted with what’s happened. Wearing a baggy green onto a field means something. This test should be finished now. Steve Smith can never captain Australia again. David Warner can no longer hold a leadership position in this team again. I feel like they have spat in my face by doing this. I am disgusted. They need to be brought home in disgrace”.
That’s Mark in Greenvale, out near Melbourne Airport, calling into Gerard Whateley on SEN Radio on Sunday morning, expressing the views of the majority of Australian cricket fans following events earlier in the morning in Cape Town.
Cricket Australia has a ‘to die for’ list of sponsors. Following the events in Cape Town, I would suggest some of these sponsors are now on life support when it comes to maintaining their relationship with cricket and Cricket Australia.
Here’s the roll call: Qantas, JLT, CBA, XXXX Gold, Accenture, Toyota, Asics, Milo, Bet365, Hardy’s, Magellan, Optus, KFC, BUPA, Weet-Bix, Specsavers and Gatorade. It is as good as it gets.
I’m sure there will be a few opportunistic sponsors licking their lips (and their fingers) at the chance to re-negotiate their cricket sponsorship arrangements!
Cannot believe the hysteria surrounding this incident. Smith, Bancroft et al were guilty of being stupid…. very stupid but they didn’t take performance enhancing drugs and the punishment handed down by the ICC is in line with their current guidelines (we aren’t the first nation to be caught out for this and we wont be the last). If anything this episode proves just how big cricket is in this country when every journalist has an opinion (some with little to no knowledge of the game) and the Prime Minister himself sees fit to pass comment.
No, they should be burnt, all of them. They all would have been complicit – it’s a team sport. It’s a sport that they have all brought into disrepute. Blatant cheating. Very poor association for every brand involved. 90% of the time I see the CBA or Qantas logo over the next week will involve cheating, being unfair, and being stupid to boot.
Steve Smith’s actions managed to get cricket on the front page of every newspaper in Australia.
Could potentially be a sponsor’s delight for the rest of the series.
More exposure than ever anticipated. What a dilemma!
Burn them all at the stake!
For the sake of the children, we as an industry must take a stance!
I think we all need to sit back and take a break till the full story comes out, hopefully tomorrow from Mr. Sutherland.
Not everything we see or hear is actually the ‘truth’ of the matter at this level.
Politicians behave so badly a lot of the time and we constantly put them back in office !
However, this is offensive behaviour from members of our elite cricket team and someone will pay the price for such a public display of it !!
Sponsors obviously didn’t read this.