Birmingham Phoenix have agreed a kit deal with Castore for next season, with The Hundred’s long-term apparel supplier, New Balance, increasingly being phased out by the franchises that are under new ownership. 

City AM revealed last week that London Spirit are also dropping New Balance after the current campaign, with their new co-owners, Cricket Investor Holdings, wasting no time in striking a kit deal with Nike. 

All of The Hundred’s sponsorship and commercial deals have until now been negotiated centrally by the England and Wales Cricket Board, but the New Balance contract contained a break clause triggered by a change of ownership, which has taken place at six of the eight franchises who last week signed shareholding agreements with new investors. 

London Spirit are understood to have rejected an approach from Castore before opting for Nike. Instead, the British sportswear brand agreed a deal with Birmingham Phoenix, who are now co-owned by US group Knighthead, which also owns the second city’s football team. 

Castore has made a big impact in cricket since being launched by Tom and Phil Beahon in 2015, and is currently the official kit suppliers of all England international teams, South Africa and West Indies, as well as Surrey, Yorkshire and Kent. 

The north-west based company’s forays into football have been less successful, with Aston Villa and Newcastle United both terminating their contracts early following complaints from players about the quality of the shirts.

Castore also runs the ECB’s online shop for The Hundred, which ironically involves selling New Balance shirts for one more season at least. Castore declined to comment. 

Birmingham Phoenix men and women play their first fixtures of this year’s Hundred on Friday against Trent Rockets.

Super League cashes in on lower tackle height 

Super League chiefs have been able to mitigate the impact of the declining value of their main TV contract with Sky Sports by securing an improved deal with insurance provider AXA. 

Rule changes introduced last year, such as lowering the legal tackle height to below the armpit, have led to a significant reduction in player injuries, an improvement Super League has been able to use to negotiate cheaper insurance premiums. 

The savings have been passed on to clubs to partially offset the collapsing value of the Sky deal, which has fallen from £40m in 2021 to £20.5m in the current cycle. Clubs have received central distribution payments of £1.24m in the last two years, a drop of more than £300,000 from 2023. 

Super League last week took the controversial decision to expand the competition to 14 clubs next season, but with the TV income fixed the two promoted teams will not receive any central funding, leading to concerns over their competitiveness.

Ward steps into Ferdinand shoes on TNT

TNT Sports will have a low-key replacement for Rio Ferdinand on punditry duty when it broadcasts the Community Shield between Liverpool and Crystal Palace for the first time on Sunday, the start of a four-year deal with the FA that primarily covers the men’s FA Cup.