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The County Championship has found a new sponsor, just in time. PPP, the healthcare company who provide private medical insurance for more than 2.6 million people through individual and company schemes, will become only the third company to sponsor the championship when it gets off to its earliest start tomorrow.

PPP will sponsor the championship for the next four years at least and, though details have still to be finalised, they will also lend financial support to various grass-roots initiatives. These could include help for school, clubs, development of excellence projects and disabled cricketers.

The deal was completed last week and it is a relief that the oldest and most important county competition, the chief breeding-ground for Test cricketers, has found a patron after a search which lasted for many months.

Even the Australians have decided that a $2 million loss in their own major domestic competition, the Sheffield Shield, will have to be underwritten by commercial patronage in future and since Schweppes became the first championship sponsors in 1973, it has been essential to the financial well-being of the professional system here.

Sky will be covering some games towards the end of each season but a relative lack of television coverage naturally makes the championship less attractive to businesses.

Ten counties are involved in matches starting tomorrow at Chelmsford, Durham, Lord's, Old Trafford and the Oval. The top nine finishers this year will form the new premier division from next season, when promotion and relegation for three counties each year will begin.

PPP will sponsor both divisions equally. No financial details have been divulged but a spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board claimed that the deal is a ``significant improvement'' on the terms under which Britannic Assurance sponsored the championship between 1984 and 1998.