Leeds Metropolitan University, the owners of Leeds Carnegie, this week unveiled a ground breaking partnership with our neighbours Yorkshire CCC wth the announcement that the team appearing in the Twenty20 Cup, Friends Provident Trophy and NatWest Pro40 competitions will be called Yorkshire Carnegie from the start of the 2008 season.
After successfully breaking into the world of professional rugby union this season, with increased attendances for Leeds Carnegie's home games, the university are now going to work together with Yorkshire CCC to promote their one day team.
In a ground breaking extension of their existing partnership with the club, Leeds Met Carnegie now has the naming rights to Yorkshire's one-day side until the end of the 2012 season. This builds on the strong relationship already in place between the Cricket Club and the University and demonstrates a positive desire to work together which can only be good news for the game of cricket.
The renaming of the cricket team adds to Leeds Met Carnegie's strong portfolio of commitment to a wide range of sports, as well as partner clubs. The University has naming rights to national leagues, the Carnegie Premier League football in Northern Ireland and the Carnegie Challenge Cup rugby league competition, as well as to rugby league world championship the Carnegie World Club Challenge, a Superleague netball franchise and of course Leeds Carnegie.
Stewart Regan, Chief Executive of The Yorkshire County Cricket Club said, "This is an exciting development for both Yorkshire CCC and Leeds Metropolitan University. They have proved to be an excellent partner of this club and we look forward to their support in developing Yorkshire Carnegie into the best one-day side in the country. We hope that the 50,000 students at the University plus the 350,000+ students in the Leeds Met network along with the many thousands of former Carnegie students will all get behind their team when the season gets underway in April. It will be great for the players to play in front of bigger crowds and hopefully the additional support can spur us on to success in 2008 and beyond."
Professor Simon Lee, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Met, said, "We are delighted to deepen our partnership with Yorkshire and to celebrate the one day game, in particular, as Yorkshire Carnegie."