Automobile giants Nissan underlined their sports sponsorship ambitions when they announced on Wednesday a major eight-year deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) as one of their global sponsors.

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The agreement, which runs through 2023, will ensure Nissan’s presence in ICC tournaments, including the World Cup, Champions Trophy and World Twenty20, as well as Under-19 and Women’s Cricket and qualifying events.

As a global partner, Nissan will have extensive in-venue activation, broadcast and digital rights at all ICC events, starting with next year’s World Twenty20 in India.

Commenting on the agreement, David Richardson, chief executive, International Cricket Council, said: “Nissan’s values are closely aligned to those of the ICC, to be innovative, with a strong focus on delivering exciting and unique experiences for our fans and stakeholders.”

This is the fourth big global sports sponsorship deal by the Japanese car-makers in the last couple of years, following their associations with the UEFA Champions League, the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and NBA China.

Speaking exclusively to Sport360 from Mumbai on Wednesday, Roel de Vries, Nissan’s corporate vice president, and global head of marketing and brand strategy, said it was an easy decision for them to become part of cricket.

“We have made a conscious decision at Nissan to move our marketing investment into sponsorships, and particularly sports sponsorship,” said de Vries. “We are a global brand and we are interested in partnering global sports. And cricket is one of the biggest sports in the world now.

“India is obviously one of the big markets for us, but we didn’t use the Indian Premier League because with ICC, we also get access to big automotive markets like the UK, Australia and South Africa.”

De Vries said cricket fans in the UAE and the region can expect a lot of exciting things in the future when the local offices begin their activations close to events.

“We don’t want it to be just advertising around cricket. We want it to be unique and different.

“We will do a lot digitally, and there will be activations around the game which could see fans being taken for events and other competitions.

“The UAE and the Middle East is going to be one of our focus markets for these activations, given the high number of cricket-loving population in the region.”