Cricket Australia loses major sponsor over players’ ‘conspiracy’ to cheat

SYDNEY – The Australian cricket team lost a major sponsor and a host of large companies tore up branding deals with individual players on Thursday as the fallout of a ball-tampering scandal tore into the financial core of the country’s favourite pastime.

Fund manager Magellan Financial Group Ltd binned a three-year team naming rights deal, which was only seven months old, while sports apparel giant ASICS Corp and Commonwealth Bank of Australia joined other firms in dropping players caught in the scandal which has shaken cricket.

The quick financial fallout to the ball-tampering last Saturday in South Africa, 11,000 km (6,835 miles) away, shows the eagerness of the corporate sector to distance itself from scandal at a time when the internet and social media can keep public criticism alive seemingly indefinitely.

“A conspiracy by the leadership of the Australian men’s test cricket team which broke the rules with a clear intention to gain an unfair advantage during the third test in South Africa goes to the heart of integrity,” said Magellan CEO Hamish Douglass in the statement.