Vodafone Stays at the Crease

Vodafone renewed its multi-million pound sponsorship of the England cricket team for another four years yesterday, before the team's long-awaited Ashes clash.

Under the deal, understood to be worth about £4m a year, Vodafone has a full package of sponsorship rights including branding on all playing and training kit and extensive access to the England players.

The price is slightly higher than Vodafone paid for the previous four-year deal because, for the first time, the company has secured the rights to show match highlights and clips of wicket-taking over its new 3G service.

Customers of the Vodafone Live with 3G service will be able to watch video highlights of all the action from England's home matches on the same day for £3 a month.

Subscribers to Vodafone's existing £5-a-month sports package, which includes sports footage from SkySports, will get the clips free. "The inclusion of the 3G cricket rights ... expands the parameters of our partnership and ensures that fans across the country will be able to catch the action on the field wherever they are," said Vodafone's head of marketing Peter Bamford.

There had been rumours that Vodafone, team sponsor since 1997, would bow out after the departure of cricket-loving chief executive Sir Christopher Gent two years ago. But a spokesman said yesterday that the decision to renew the cricket deal was "taken in isolation from any director's personal foibles; it is a commercial decision".

The new deal will take Vodafone through to the end of the 2009 Ashes series.