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Cornhill Insurance, who have supported England cricket for 22 years to the tune of nearly L28 million, reassured a worried England Cricket Board last night that they would not be pulling the plug, despite the team's disappointing performances this summer.

Geoff Mayhew, Cornhill's sponsorship manager, agreed, however, that when next year's negotiations over a new contract begin Cornhill will take into account such factors as the public's perception of England. ``It's important for us that these are right and that audience levels are satisfactory,'' he said.

On the morning of the Oval Test, the ECB had been concerned to hear Mr Mayhew's comments on radio that ``if performances continue to produce an adverse effect on people's perception of cricket, then we'll have to consider our position as major sponsors''.

He said that what Cornhill wanted from the sport was ``basically, fame''. Last year their association with England Test cricket had given them brand name recognition of 35 per cent within the insurance industry.

``We've stood by cricket in good times and bad and it in turn has helped us enormously over the years. We'll have to decide whether it can continue to help our business in the future.''

Channel 4's impact on television audiences will be criticial to Cornhill's final judgment. That cannot have been helped by the loss of 40 minutes' live viewing of the Test yesterday afternoon while two races from the York meeting were televised. An unspecified number of complaints from viewers were registered.