Royal London becomes ECB's one-day title sponsor

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is celebrating another major commercial boost ahead of the eagerly anticipated Ashes Series in Australia, in announcing that Royal London, the UK's largest mutual life and pensions company, will become headline sponsor of one-day cricket at international, county and recreational levels from 2014.

The ECB's vision of game-wide title sponsorship for each format has now come to fruition with Royal London sponsoring all one-day cricket, Investec sponsoring Test cricket, NatWest sponsoring all T20 cricket and LV= backing the County Championship.

Royal London ODIs (men's): forty matches over four years against Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa.

The comprehensive four-year deal includes:

  •  Royal London Women's ODIs: schedule yet to be confirmed

  •   Royal London One-Day Cup (men's): county competition which will be 50 overs per side

  •   Royal London National Club Championship: a knockout tournament in which the top 256 clubs in the country compete

  •   Royal London Junior County Cups: played in forty counties for the boys U14, U15 & U17 competitions, and 32 counties for the girls U13, U15 & U17 competitions.

David Collier, ECB Chief Executive, said: "It is with great pleasure that we welcome Royal London as our newest commercial partner. Our commercial and broadcast deals provide the foundation and long-term stability for our investment in cricket from the playground to Test arena, and this deal is further proof of cricket’s popularity in England and Wales.

"The public's appetite for one-day cricket remains extremely high with international sell-outs every summer and the recent success of the ICC Champions Trophy is also testament to the format's strength.

"It is fitting that I take this opportunity to thank our previous county one-day cricket partners Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank for their support since 2005".

Phil Loney, Group CEO of Royal London, said: "Cricket is a very British sport, we are a very British company and we are pleased to be working in partnership with the ECB to help them develop one-day cricket at an international and domestic level. As a mutual, we are particularly pleased to be helping them sustain local communities through the grassroots development of the sport".