We knew Hurricanes fans wouldn’t care about a bank sponsoring their cricket team.

But banks have one thing that everyone loves. Money.

So we combined cash with cricket, and printed Cricket Cash.

A 4 dollar note celebrating the team’s 4-scoring machine, Tim Paine, and a 6 dollar note idolising their 6-hitting hero, Ben Dunk.

We dispensed Cricket Cash to customers through our bank tellers in-branch,

driving fans to cricket matches to spend it on tickets, food, beverages and merchandise.

With the creation of Cricket Cash, MyState Bank became the first bank in the world to literally make money for its customers.

Cricket Cash was printed onto a unique polymer substrate, the same stock used by the National Mint for Australian currency. A holographic foil stamp was added as a security feature to ensure the notes were counterfeit-proof.

$15,000 in Cricket Cash was initially put into circulation, then a further $20,000 was printed due to popular demand.

Cricket Cash could be spent exactly like money at all four Hurricanes home games throughout the cricket season. After each match, Cricket Cash was collected from the tills and transported to MyState where it was exchanged into legal tender for the Hurricanes.

When we sponsored the Hurricanes, we didn’t just give them money. We packed their stadium full of support, drawing the largest crowd in the stadium’s history – for any sport.

18,419 fans filled Blundstone Arena to 96% capacity.

Season attendance records were also smashed by 18% and Hurricanes merchandise sales increased by a massive 35%.

At the bank, tellers were inundated with customers requesting Cricket Cash.

The first print run of $15,000 was circulated in three days, and the second print run of $20,000 ran out in just two days. But the goodwill generated for MyState by Cricket Cash will last much longer than the cricket season.