Amul is official sponsor of Netherlands cricket team

Ahmedabad (Agencies): India’s leading dairy brand Amul have become the official sponsors of the Netherlands cricket team for the ICC Cricket World Cup starting February 19.

The Royal Netherlands Cricket Board (RNCB) signed the sponsorship deal with Amul yesterday. 
Logo of Amul Butter, a Gujrat based giant will appear on the sleeve of saffron jersrys of players as well as on the training kits throughout the World Cup.

"We were looking to associate with the game of cricket for long....World cup came as a good opportunity and it clicked," GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi said.

"We are getting associated with the Cricket World Cup for the first time and Amul welcomes the Netherlands team to Indian sub-continent," he said. However, he did not divulge the amount of money involved in the sponsorship deal. 
 Netherlands will play their first match against England on February 22 in Nagpur.

"I am delighted we have been able to bring Amul on board for the World Cup and will be showcasing the brand over the competition," RNCB Chief Executive Richard Cox said in a statement.

"It is also heartening to note that the level of their investment will extend not just to supporting the team but also allow us to invest in some key areas of the board, most notably our development programmes beyond the World Cup," Cox said. 
     
"The board has attracted over half a dozen new financial partners in last 12 months," he added.

 

Twitter ban on players during World Cup matches

In a bid to ensure a corruption-free World Cup following the spot-fixing scandal, the International Cricket Council has banned players and team officials from tweeting during matches.

The decision, an initiative of ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, was intended to restrain players and officials from any possible approach by people with links to illegal betting during World Cup matches.

The move from the ICC came in response to Australian team manager Steve Bernard's tweets which attracted more than 1,100 followers to his @stevebernard37 account in the past six months, including during Ashes and the subsequent ODI series, according to a report in Sydney Morning Herald.

The long-time manager was told soon after arriving in Bangalore with the team last week that he, as well as any other player or team official at the World Cup, had been banned from tweeting during matches.

"When it comes to issues of corruption we prefer to err on the side of caution. We don't want to spoil anyone's fun but there is a chance that sensitive information could be passed on during matches in this way, even inadvertently, and we just feel that team managers' phones should be kept for operational purposes only.

"This recommendation is not confined to the Australia team manager but all teams in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and is certainly not a reaction to anything the Australia team manager has said or done in the past. It's merely a precaution and is not something we are overly worried about at this stage," ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Players and officials will still, however, be permitted to tweet when matches are not occurring.

Cricket Australia chief spokesman Peter Young believed that the in-game ban had been imposed by the ICC due to the heightened sensitivity about corruption in cricket.

"(Bernard) is very judicious about what he does and doesn't say but while he's getting it right there needs to be one rule for all," Young said.

"It is, as I understand, a perception issue. They don't want players or team management able to be communicating to the outside world because of the concern the information might be misused by the illegal betting industry."

Bernard and Australia coach Tim Nielsen began tweeting last August based on a request from CA, which wanted fans to get a better insight into the team.