AS PRIVILEGED guests settle into their seats today at Hampshire's cradle of cricket, they could be forgiven for looking a shade smug.

After all, they are the fortunate recipients of gold dust hospitality tickets, which are worth at least £299 each, compared to £35 for a normal adult ticket.

The three-figure sum is the price being paid by cash-rich sponsor companies for a select few to see some of the world's most outstanding players at today's ICC Champions Trophy semi-final clash between the West Indies and Pakistan at the £24m Rose Bowl.

For those stumping up the costs, it means a chance to lavish entertainment on their VIPs.

These clients, ranging from bankers and lawyers to directors and venture capitalists, will be wined and dined in luxury from the first ball bowled to the last, with the best seats in the house.

It's an opportunity for box holders to thank a captive audience for their loyalty, as well as fostering goodwill, generating new business and cementing working relationships.

Amid the socialising, there may also be conversations involving key market intelligence - the sort of dynamite information that can create jobs or destroy them.

Berkshire-based company Peter Parfitt Leisure has been dealing with all hospitality enquiries for the five ICC Champions Trophy matches taking place at the Rose Bowl.

However, that company won't be making as much money from the corporate world as it would normally do for a game at the Rose Bowl.

There are ten hospitality boxes at the Rose Bowl but the main trophy sponsors, LG, Pepsi, Hutch and Hero Honda, had first call.

Normally the Rose Bowl, with its bread-and-butter county cricket matches, is the entertainment choice of a number of high-profile companies in Hampshire, including business services adviser Tenon, Trant Construction and Cheltenham & Gloucester.

As is the Saints' £32m stadium at St Mary's in Southampton.

For it is here where corporate hospitality takes on new dimensions.

Boxes start at £31,950 for a season and for that price you get a table of ten.

There are currently 47 executive box holders, including support services and shipbuilder VT Group, Saints sponsor Friends Provident, commercial lawyers Bond Pearce, the Royal Bank of Scotland and club legal advisors Paris Smith & Randall.

All these companies are major employers in the region.

Mark Price, the regional corporate director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which employs more than 780 people in and around Southampton, believes the bank's investment in a box is a good idea.

He said: "We do it because of the goodwill it generates. It is impossible to say whether we get our money back through business it generates.

"What you do is invite people courted by the bank when you find it is a personal interest. People tend to do business with people they like.

"At the end of the day you can find that the capability to do business is a given and therefore you can be choosy and choose the people you like.

"I go maybe once or twice a year. We have got a range of managers and we try and spread it around.

"It can be used as a perk for staff if it's a game where we can't fill it, such as January 1 when there's often a game and you can't expect customers to come out.

"We are happy with it as an investment."

Ray Chalmers, director of business development at commercial law giant Bond Pearce, which employs 170 people in Southampton, said: "People like to do business with advisers they know and get on well with and corporate hospitality is an excellent way of developing positive relationships.

"It is a chance to spend time together at a sporting or social event which they enjoy, free from the day to day pressures of business life.

"Relationships strengthened at such events can lead to new business opportunities as well as helping to secure existing work."

Sandra Black, the marketing manager for business advisers Tenon, which employs 140 people at Chandler's Ford, said: "Up until this season we had a corporate box, ground and programme advertising at the football.

"Due to budget constraints we have just taken four season tickets this year.

"We primarily use the tickets for directors to entertain our top clients, potential clients and key contacts who provide work for us.

"We previously advertised at the ground as this was an effective way of getting the Tenon brand out into the marketplace as we were previously known as BKL Weeks Green. No one had heard of Tenon!

"At the Rose Bowl we have a board at the entrance and season tickets, which again we use for entertainment purposes and branding."

Carl Faulds, the managing director of professional services firm Portland, which employs 27 people at Whiteley, said: "As a company we host an annual cricket day at the Rose Bowl and I have also attended St Mary's as a guest.

"As a firm we use corporate hospitality to thank clients for their business, maintain and develop relationships and also actually enjoy ourselves as hosts.

"The cricket works well because it is a very relaxed environment providing plenty of opportunity to chat to our guests and enjoy some banter about the sport.

"Corporate entertaining can be expensive, so it is important to make sure you get value for money and this is achieved by making sure that you choose the right events and match the right people and I don't think you need to go over the top. It's just about making sure you look after your guests and that they enjoy themselves."

Still, the public will have one thing in common with the movers and shakers in the hospitality boxes at the Rose Bowl.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo, there is a sponsors' ban on any food or drink bearing the logos or names of any competitors.