CSA Lands Three-Year Advtech Deal Across Women's and Youth Cricket
Image by Steward Masweneng
Cricket South Africa (CSA) has signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with Advtech Limited, one of Africa's largest education and resourcing groups, putting the company's brand across the Proteas' Test calendar and the federation's youth development pipeline. The partnership will get Advtech’s name in front of the parents, students and investors it needs as it expands its private school and tertiary footprint.
Under the deal, Advtech becomes official sponsor of the Proteas Women's inbound Test series and the CSA Youth Weeks, spanning the U13 Boys Week, the U16 Boys and Girls Weeks, the U19 Girls Week and the Khaya Majola Cricket Week. It also joins as associate partner of the Proteas Men's Test series. Advtech schools Crawford International and Trinityhouse will introduce dedicated girls' cricket programmes as part of the arrangement, feeding into CSA's pathway for the women's game.
CSA Chief Executive Pholetsi Moseki noted the partnership to be a social investment as much as a commercial one. Advtech Chief Executive Geoff Whyte was more direct about the scale of it: "Our partnership with Cricket South Africa extends across the sport, from grassroots to the elite Men's and Women's teams."
That gap between the two companies' public language, CSA's talk of pathways and social impact, Advtech's talk of basis points and enrolment, is the story here. CSA needs commercial partners who will fund youth cricket at a scale broadcast revenue does not reach, particularly on the women's and girls' side, where sponsorship has historically lagged the men's game. Advtech needs a way to put its name in front of exactly the households likely to enrol a child in a private school, and youth cricket weeks, run in front of players' families across nine provinces, are about as direct a channel as sports sponsorship offers. What makes the partnership notable is the girls' cricket commitment attached to two named schools rather than left as a general pledge, which gives CSA something to point to and gives Advtech a concrete recruitment story to tell at open days.
