Vodafone plunks Oz cricket and V8 Supercars sponsorship to plough money back into phone network

Sydney - Vodafone is to end its sponsorship of cricket and V8 Supercars to plough the money instead into its mobile phone network and improve customer service.

The mobile phone company, which has struggled with its reception in recent years, has said that it will not renew its sponsorship of the Australian cricket team from next March.

The company also confirmed that its involvement in V8 Supercars through its Team Vodafone finishes at the end of this year.

The decision to pull out of sponsorship and focus on network investment was made earlier this year before the company's new chief executive, Bill Morrow, took over from Nigel Dews in late March.

The director of Vodafone's consumer business unit Noel Hamill said Morrow "absolutely endorsed" the decision.

"We've been fortunate to be the major sponsor of the Australian Test Cricket Team during an era that has featured some of the true greats of the game, including the Waugh brothers, Warne, McGrath, Gilly, Ponting, and Michael Clarke. We wish the team every success in the future," The Age quoted Hamill, as saying.

Vodafone has been a sponsor of the Australian cricket team for 11 years and six years with motorsport V8 Supercars.

The carrier was besieged by complaints in late 2010 because its network was unprepared for the amount of mobile data used by smartphones, while its customer base fell by 554,000 to 7 million by the end of 2011 as consumers abandoned it in search of more reliable service.