Sponsorship and Name Changes
In 1999, the Australian Cricket Board (now Cricket Australia) announced a four-year sponsorship deal which included renaming the Sheffield Shield to the Pura Milk Cup, then to the Pura Cup the following season. Pura is a brand name of National Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Philippines-based San Miguel Corporation. The sponsorship increased total annual prize money to A$220,000, with the winners receiving A$75,000 and the runners up A$45,000.
Although the competition had previously been running with losses of several million dollars per annum, cricket traditionalists protested strongly, arguing against the encroaching wave of commercialism damaging the competition that had been running for over 100 years. The competition continued to be referred to by some fans as the "Shield" as force of habit, a subtle protest, or simply to differentiate it from the one-day domestic competition.
On 16 July 2008 it was announced that Weet-Bix would take over sponsorship of the competition from the start of the 2008–09 season, and that the name would revert to the "Sheffield Shield" or the "Sheffield Shield presented by Weet-Bix". Weet-bix is a cereal biscuit manufactured by Sanitarium Health Food Company.
In the 2011-12 season, Bupa took over the sponsorship for the competition.
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