Westpac stumps CBA as new sponsor of Australian cricket
Westpac has bowled up a four-year multimillion-dollar deal as the new major partner of Australian cricket - and it’s a match made in heaven for their CEO Anthony Miller and his family of Aussie sports stars.
NSW
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Westpac CEO Anthony Miller knows his sport.
The head of Australia’s oldest bank which will today announce a four-year deal as major partner of Cricket Australia – an agreement understood to be worth more than $40 million – hails from a family of over-achievers.
His sister Gail won gold in water polo at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. His brother Paul boxed for Australia at the same Games. His daughter Desiree is a star of the Wallaroos, the Australian women’s rugby union team, and son Connor played college basketball in the United States.
Mr Miller himself was a national under-age swimming champion and later played first grade rugby union alongside former Wallabies captain John Eales at the Brothers club in Brisbane.
“I was utterly committed to being a swimmer,” he said. “I wanted to represent Australia at the Olympics but I simply wasn’t good enough.”
So he turned to rugby.
“I played a bit with John Eales but only a handful of games,” he laughed. “He was off touring the globe, playing for the Wallabies, winning World Cups.”
Mr Miller believes his coach best summarised the future chief executive’s on-field ability when telling him: “Anthony, I love your enthusiasm”.
But the eldest of six siblings whose family lived in Canberra, Darwin, Alice Springs, Dubbo and Brisbane during his school years, turns serious when discussing the importance of sport and why the Westpac deal will cover cricket “top to toe”.
The partnership includes the men’s and women’s national teams, support for local clubs and communities, backing First Nations championships and enabling programs to assist visually impaired, hearing impaired and intellectually disabled players.
For the first time a single sponsor will also have front-of-shirt branding for the men’s and women’s Test, one-day international, and T20 sides whenever they play in Australia.
“Through this partnership we’ll work with Cricket Australia to grow cricket at all levels, engaging players, fans and club communities around the country,” Mr Miller said.
“I reflect on my childhood in country towns and regional areas and every single weekend was consumed with sport.
“It was a way people connected and were brought together. It reinforced community, that idea that we’re in this together ... that culture of mateship.”
As important, he said, are the health benefits.
“The very fact when you get people together, playing sport or at least coming together for sport, it becomes a great contributor to mental wellbeing and community wellbeing,” he added.
“Maybe we need to redouble our efforts in this area as we clearly have more and more wellbeing and mental health challenges being called out and identified.
“Many of them are levelled at social media and all those other behaviours and habits that have emerged.
“So perhaps a reinforcement of participation in sport is a really important, I think, priority for the country.”
Westpac stumped fellow big bank rival and former long-time sponsor CBA to sign on with Cricket Australia.
The Westpac logo was on Australia A shirts in the just completed series against Sri Lanka A in Darwin and will feature on the men’s team uniform for a series of one-day and T20 matches against South Africa and India starting next month.
The company’s Test ‘debut’ will come in the Ashes later this year.
Westpac also sponsors the NRL for an estimated $6 million a year, and is front of jersey partner for the NSW and Queensland State of Origin sides.
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