Foster's is to become the Official Lager of England Cricket in a new two-year sponsorship deal with The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The agreement will start with this summer's home international series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and gives Foster's a range of commercial rights around the international game.

Foster's has an historic relationship with cricket and will use the sponsorship to target cricket fans and TV viewers as part of a wider marketing campaign based around the theme "Why the hell not?!"

Key benefits for Foster's will include England player appearances, perimeter board advertising, in-ground product display rights and the opportunity to build 'pourage' relationships with county grounds.

This is the fourth commercial agreement ECB has secured since the start of 2016. Yorkshire Tea has also renewed an agreement to be the Official Brew of England Cricket for a further three years and new deals for Specsavers to support the County Championship and for Greene King to be the Official Beer of England Cricket have alse been agreed.

ECB Commercial Director Sanjay Patel said: "This is the first time we have appointed an official partner in this area and we are very pleased to have attracted an iconic lager brand which has a strong track record of supporting cricket and will be well-known to fans.

"Our commercial family continues to grow with significant interest from brands and companies across all our categories.

"We are pleased to be working with Foster's, excited by their plans to engage with a wider audience and will be working hard with our venues to help deliver the best possible brand exposure for Foster's over the next two years".

David Forde, Foster's UK Managing Director, said: "We're thrilled to team up with England Cricket. It's been a decade since we last sponsored the sport in the UK and what a time to start again. England are playing a brand of cricket that has excited the public in all three forms of the game. Cricket has one of the widest fan bases of any sport and Foster's is one of the best-selling lagers in the country – it's a winning combination".

Image credit: By Tim Felce [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons