The deal
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) added Japanese automotive heavyweight Toyota as a major commercial partner last week.
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The deal, which starts in May, entails Toyota becoming the principal partner of the ECB, with its name and logo taking the main front-of-shirt sponsorship slot on all kits across the England men’s, women’s, and disabled teams. It will also gain branding at all home international matches, with international cricket featuring England getting underway late next month.
This deal has resulted in the termination of the ECB's previous principal partner tie-up, a four-year contract with online car-selling platform Cinch, which the cricket body announced earlier this month has now come to an end.
Why it matters
For Toyota, this deal comes on top of an existing front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with Cricket Australia, governing the various national teams of that country.
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By GlobalDataThat tie-up, which is currently set to expire at the end of 2025-26, was last upgraded (to the front-of-shirt position) in December 2023. The first agreement between those two bodies dates back to 2012.
The fact that the Cricket Australia-Toyota deal is set to run out in less than 12 months' time gives rise to the real possibility that this tie-up with the ECB is intended to eventually replace that agreement.
Olivia Snooks, associate analyst at GlobalData Sport, has commented: "2025 presents a prime opportunity for Toyota to align with a new era of cricket in England. This pivotal year introduces a new captain and coach for the England women's team, a revamped domestic structure for women's cricket, and a fresh coach and captain for the England men's white-ball team.
"Toyota is poised to gain significant brand visibility through two of the year's most prominent test series: a home series against India and an away Ashes series [against Australia] at the year's end, culminating with the Women's Cricket World Cup in India.
"Toyota's partial strategic shift from Cricket Australia to the ECB during an Ashes year is noteworthy, potentially as a result of the trajectory of English cricket being seen as in harmony with Toyota's vision of becoming a key supporter of the sport's advancement in that market.
"Toyota’s partnership with the ECB's disability cricket program, meanwhile, aligns with the brand’s publicly stated message of mobility and inclusivity. Indeed, Toyota's commitment will extend beyond supporting the game at the elite level, encompassing grassroots cricket as well.”
In terms of its other prominent global sports partnerships, meanwhile, Toyota and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) let a long-running sponsorship tie-up expire at the end of 2024.
The Toyota-IOC deal ran through the Olympics in 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2024, with Toyota having provided a fleet of around 3,300 electric vehicles and mobility solutions at the Paris Olympics in late July and August. That deal is understood to have been worth $835 million in total.
Regionally, earlier this month, the Northern California Toyota Dealers franchise was unveiled as a partner of the Washington Freedom, of the US' Major League Cricket Twenty20 competition.
The details
GlobalData Sport has estimated the deal between Toyota and the ECB as being worth $4.5 million annually.
The new deal builds on Toyota's current partnership with ECB, struck in March, focusing on grassroots cricket across England and Wales. That tie-up saw Toyota become the official partner of the ECB’s All Stars Cricket program, investing £800,000 over the next four years to fund 4,000 additional bursaries each year.
The Japanese brand joins the likes of Cinch, Rothesay, Metro Bank, Vitality, and IG on the ECB’s commercial partnership list, with other sponsors including Cognizant, Castore, Chapel Down, Laithwaites, and Zoopla.
Even in the few days since the Toyota deal was struck, KP Snacks – for the last few years, a partner of English cricket's The Hundred short-format domestic competition – has come on board as the sleeve sponsor for all England national representative teams.
As part of the partnership, Toyota also becomes the ECB’s first official champion partner of disability cricket and the Disability Premier League, supporting the development and improvement of England Disability teams.
Tony Singh, commercial director at the ECB, has stated: "Toyota will bring its global might to support so many areas of our sport in England and Wales, from the top to the bottom of the game."
The ECB is currently preparing for a busy 2025 international season, featuring home international series against the West Indies and South Africa, a one-off men’s test against Zimbabwe (beginning on May 22), and India visiting to take on England in men’s, women’s, and mixed disability series.
