The England & Wales Cricket Board have announced that npower is their new Test Match sponsor.

The gas and electricity supplier has agreed to inject £11 million into domestic Tests in the next three years.

The new sponsor replaces Cornhill Insurance, who ended their sponsorship at the conclusion of last year's series against the West Indies. They invested £3 million during 2000, and £27.7 million in all since 1978.

The England team has seen a revival in fortunes since Cornhill announced that they were ending their sponsorship. After losing series to New Zealand and South Africa, England have now won successive series against Zimbabwe, the West Indies and Pakistan.

npower will also sponsor the FA Premier League next season.

The England captain, Nasser Hussain, commented: "All the England players are relishing the prospect of taking part in the first npower Test Series.

"Australia and Pakistan are both top sides with world-class players in their ranks, and I'm sure that all cricket fans can look forward to an exciting and closely fought summer of Test cricket."

ECB chief executive Tim Lamb said: "We are pleased to have secured npower as a major new sponsor of Test cricket and look forward to developing an excellent relationship with them in our efforts to broaden the game's appeal to a new generation of cricket-watchers.

"More than half of all tickets for the Ashes series have already been sold and in order to stimulate spectator interest still further we shall be offering free admission to children under 16 on the last scheduled day's play of each npower Test Match."

© CricInfo Ltd.