Virgin Media to donate £1,000 to charity
Virgin Media threw down the gauntlet to Australian cricketers today by unveiling a unique incentive to spur England on as they fight to win The Ashes this summer. The company has pledged to donate £1,000 to charity for every England batsman who scores a half century during the series to celebrate the national roll-out of the broadband provider’s ultrafast 50Mb broadband service.
The unique ‘Fifty50’ scheme will run throughout The Ashes and will see Virgin Media donate to a selection of good causes favoured by the England players. Launched today with the backing of former England skipper and Yorkshire player Michael Vaughan, the charity donations will go to each English batman’s chosen charity, every time he scores 50 runs or more in a single innings, throughout the series. With 14 England players scoring half a century during the last Ashes series and 18 reaching the milestone in 2005, the charity pot promises to head into five figures in an initiative that is sure to antagonise a few Aussies. With five tests ahead of the England team, captained by Andrew Strauss, Virgin Media hopes the team will be ‘bowled’ over with the initiative.
Michael Vaughan who captained the England side to Ashes victory in 2005 and recently announced his retirement commented, “This is a truly unique gesture that I know will really encourage the boys in this year’s Ashes. We all have charities that are close to our hearts and this will hopefully go a long way to helping them. Virgin Media should probably get their chequebook ready as this promises to be a great Ashes series and the England boys will be going for as many 50s as possible!”
Neil Berkett, Virgin Media’s CEO, said, “Everyone is talking about cricket this summer and we wanted to back our boys to go all the way in this year’s Ashes. Our next generation 50Mb broadband service goes that extra mile for customers and we wanted to do the same for the England team with a charity initiative that rewards every player who scores 50 runs or more in each and every innings of the series. We wanted to wish Andrew Strauss and the boys the best of luck winning The Ashes from everyone at Virgin Media!”
Giving customers the fastest broadband speeds in the UK using Virgin Media’s unique fibre optic cable network, 50Mb broadband has changed the way people interact and entertain themselves online. The Ashes marks the end of the rollout of 50Mb across the country and customers will be able to keep up-to-date with the whole series online.