World's largest cricket web site becomes first Internet sponsor of professional team

Nottinghamshire captain Jason Gallian and CricInfo Marketing Manager Andrew Hall (photo copyright Bowles Associates)

CricInfo, www.cricinfo.com, this morning signed a shirt sponsorship deal with Nottinghamshire CCC, the first of its kind involving an Internet company and a professional cricket club in the UK. The new Notts Outlaws' shirt, bearing the CricInfo logo, will be worn in Norwich Union National League games throughout the 2000 season.

In addition to securing the shirt sponsorship, the deal will also see CricInfo and Nottinghamshire CCC working closely together to promote cricket throughout the local community, with the web sites www.cricinfo.com and www.trentbridge.co.uk playing a key role.

Supporters will be able to follow the fortunes of Nottinghamshire CCC throughout the season via CricInfo's ball-by-ball coverage, as well as audio and video features, comprehensive scorecard archive and player diaries.

The organisations will work together to produce a unique record of cricket played in the region at every level, giving the grass-roots game - from Club to schools cricket - unprecedented online exposure.

CricInfo's Chief Executive Simon King said "We place great importance on the role of the Counties in promoting the game and we share with Nottinghamshire a commitment to the development of cricket throughout the area. The Club already has some excellent initiatives in place and we are keen to work with them to develop more such schemes - they are essential for the future well-being of the game."

"We are already seeing huge interest in the imminent arrival of Shoiab Akhtar through our official Pakistan site, and this interest can only be to the benefit of cricket in Nottinghamshire."

Nottinghamshire CCC Chief Executive David Collier commented: "We have recognised the importance of the electronic media for some time through our own web site - both for the promotion of the cricket club as well as global sales and international match tickets. Working with CricInfo provides us with an important means of extending our reach both locally and globally."

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ABOUT CRICINFO CricInfo Ltd. is the world's leading digital cricket publisher. CricInfo's web site, www.cricinfo.com, is the most popular cricket site in the world and the Internet's most popular single-sport site, reaching more than ten million fans in 180 countries. The site generated 95,536,300 page impressions during March 2000.

CricInfo works with cricket boards and cricket organisations, blue chip companies and the media to deliver cricket content for a wide range of different platforms. It currently produces official sites for five of the nine Test-playing countries, and for a number of domestic teams worldwide, including Hampshire and Glamorgan.

CricInfo produces CricInfo 365, the free daily email newsletter, which has more than 150,000 subscribers, making it the world's most popular cricket subscription publication. More than 50,000 people have participated in cricket fantasy games on CricInfo sites in the last year.