Nissan has signed on as official automotive partner for Cricket Canada and its men’s and women’s national teams.

Secured by Boundaries North (an initiative led by WEIC Sports United, formerly Teams Canada), the partnership will see Nissan appear on the back of the national team jerseys.

Alannah David-Clark, director of marketing for Nissan Canada, tells MiC that the brand decided to partner with Cricket as the sport’s audience continues to grow in the country. “The strategy is to connect with Cricket’s highly engaged audience in a meaningful way. Some fans may be familiar with Nissan and some may not,” David-Clark says. “With the team qualifying for the World Cup, we also saw it as a great opportunity to support the organization in its national and global development,” she adds.

According to her, the sponsorship aligns with Nissan’s global strategy, in which sport is a major pillar to improve brand recall.

In addition to visibility on the jerseys, she says the brand will roll out activations, experiences and digital content with engaging stories to grab the attention of cricket fans.

Boundaries North CEO Rahul Srinivasan previously told MiC that, with the sponsorships, Cricket aims to strengthen its connection with fans across the country, both inside and outside the arena. Nissan’s sponsorship has the same aim, he says, adding that the commercial revenue from the agreement will help develop a number of consumer-focused programs that will contribute to the growth of cricket on a local and national level.

“We knew that Cricket Canada had an ability to create a platform for marquee brands to tap into the latent sponsorship value across Canadian cricket,” Srinivasan says. “The sport in Canada is on a trajectory of significant growth and expansion, both in terms of its popularity among fans and its appeal to corporate sponsors.”

Earlier this month, A&W became the official restaurant of Cricket Canada and, prior to that, TD Bank Group partnered with association to be the official bank. Coca-Cola also became the official drink sponsor in February.