One of Australian sport's "most successful teams" is without a sponsor days before the start of the season, according to Andrew Wu of THE AGE. Women's National Cricket League side NSW Breakers players are set to take the field in their season opener next week with a "clean" shirt after long-term commercial partner Lendlease "cut ties" with the team this year. It is understood the multi-national construction group's Australian arm was "keen to continue the partnership" but the deal was not renewed to "cut costs at the end of the last financial year." Cricket NSW CEO Andrew Jones said that he was "not concerned" by the departure of Lendlease or the inability to land a replacement. Jones said that Lendlease's financial contribution had "largely gone to funding players' salaries," which now fall under Cricket Australia's player payments pool. Jones: "It's not panic stations by any stretch of the imagination. ... It was a sizable sponsorship and we achieved what we wanted out of it which is to be able to take our women to full-time professional status" (THE AGE, 9/12).
