NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Sheffield Shield name rights sold

Australia's 107-year-old domestic cricket competition was consigned to the history books today when the Australian Cricket Board announced it had sold the Sheffield Shield to a dairy company.

ACB chairman Malcolm Speed said the annual summer competition between Australia's first-class state teams would continue unchanged but the time-honoured Sheffield Shield trophy would be retired to a museum and replaced by the Pura Milk Cup in a multi-million dollar four-year deal.

Speed said there was a sense of regret that the century old competition had lost its name but said the move was necessary to help secure the financial security of Australia's most productive cricket nursery.

''We consulted widely on this issue with current and past players, cricket administrators, cricket supporters, the media and other cricket stakeholders during our 12-month strategic planning process,'' Speed said.

''The overwhelming feedback was that the most important issue confronting the Sheffield Shield was not its name but rather to preserve and strengthen the integrity of the competition itself.''

UNI