Sponsorship blues for World Cup organisers

Sponsors are not exactly queueing up for the World Cup -- a marked change from the situation when the Cup was held on the Asian sub-continent.

The original goal for tournament director Terry Blake was to sign on eight global sponsors. As of now, there are four -- and the organisers have given up on signing any more.

Vodaphone, Pepsi, Emirates Airlines and Natwest Bank are the four global sponsors of the event. Besides, there are also five 'official suppliers' of various products.

Organisers say that while the response has not, at this point, matched initial expectations, the event is still on course to show a very healthy profit -- with predictions being that the Cup will end up around $75 million in the black.

The ECB, which expects to spend around 20 million pounds to stage the event, will share profits with the ICC nations.

On the plus side, the organisers have cause to smile in that over 85 per cent of all tickets have been snapped up, with the rest disappearing faster than you can say World Cup.