Franchise Debate: Rockets' 49% Stake Sold

 

11/02

Todd Boehly Buys Rockets Stake worth £39.2 M (to the ECB) as Rockets are valued at £80M

Cain International buy Rockets Stake

Chelsea owner buys Trent Rockets stake 

Mr Boehly's Eldridge Industries have their fingers in  multitude of pies, one of which is part ownership of Chelsea FC,

with Jonathan Goldstein of Cain International

So who has bought the £40 M stake in the Trent Bridge cuckoos?

Mr Boehly?

Messrs Boehly and Goldstein?

Eldridge Industries?

Cain International?

Eldridge Industries and Cain International?

10/02

https://www.kiaoval.com/surrey-ccc-and-reliance-enter-exclusive-negotiations-over-the-oval-invincibles/

07/02

When is Lot 7 being auctioned - " franchise current know as Trent Rocket, one previous owner"?

Is there anyone left with any money to bid?

Which of the Trent Bridge staff went to India to drum up interest?

06/02

Is it Rockets' turn for lift-off today? Has the Greek Oligarch retained his interest with his other distractions across the road? Reports suggest not. 

Has the extent of the return from other sales meant that the Trent Bridge franchise can cling on to a majority stake of the Rockets and that Notts will stilll pocket enough money to pay for the pavilion project? Work has already begun on clearing and cataloguing the contents of the old building (by the heritage team). Preparing the conversion of chunks of the Radcliffe Road stand into dressing rooms with pitch access will have to start very soon.

05/02

IPL Sunrisers buy entire Leeds Franchise

Northern Discharged

Superchargers 100% Sold to Sun Group

Will Macpherson

Cash-strapped Yorkshire have secured more than £43 million of investment as the first host county to sell their entire stake in a Hundred franchise.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, of the Indian Premier League, won a three-way auction to buy 100 per cent of Northern Superchargers, the Hundred team based at Headingley, for a staggering £100.5 million.

Superchargers, owned by Kalanithi Maran, a media tycoon of the Sun Group, became the sixth of the eight Hundred franchises to be sold as part of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s auction process.

The ECB is selling 49 per cent of each team, then gifting 51 per cent to the host county, in this case Yorkshire. They chose to sell that entire stake, meaning Sunrisers will take complete control of the franchise.

Yorkshire receive 80 per cent of the windfall from the sale of their 51 per cent (10 per cent goes to the recreational game, and 10 per cent to the other counties), as well as their share of the ECB’s 49 per cent in all eight teams. In total, Yorkshire are looking at a cash injection of around £60 million, which would allow them to write off their debts, both to chairman Colin Graves and other sources. It may also mean they park plans to demutualise, thus remaining a members’ club for the immediate future. Yorkshire have been in deep financial trouble in recent years, exacerbated by the racism crisis that engulfed the county.

Yorkshire are now managed by Graves, the former ECB chairman who oversaw the introduction of the Hundred, and interim chief executive Sanjay Patel, the former managing director of the competition for the ECB.

Sunrisers, who were advised in this process by British sports advisers Oakwell, are the third IPL franchise to invest in a Hundred team, following Mumbai Indians (the Ambani family) buying 49 per cent of Oval Invincibles and Lucknow Super Giants (Sanjib Goenka) buying around 70 per cent of Manchester Originals. They also have a team in South Africa’s SA20, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, based in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth).

The bidding for Superchargers started at £80 million, and resulted in Sunrisers beating off competition from Rajasthan Royals, then Amit Jain, an American-Indian billionaire.

The remaining two franchises to be sold are Trent Rockets, in whom Jain is likely to be interested, and Southern Brave, whose host county Hampshire are already owned by GMR, the Indian business that part-owns the IPL team Delhi Capitals. It is unclear whether the auction will continue on Thursday, or if the ECB will take another short break to line up investors once more.

The total value of the six Hundred franchises sold so far is around £775 million, meaning around £380 million will be spread through the game. As it stands, each non-host county is in line for as much as £20 million in a one-off payment, while each host will earn around £14 million from central payments.

04/02

Even billionaires get a pause

cricket is going bananas

HARDLY ORIGINALS as IPL's  RPSG bags their third choice but the Manchester franchise are likely to be one of the first to change names, after RPSG bought a 70% stake in total. Manchester Super Giants, MSG mmm tasty.

Looknow who's next

Has the goose really laid the golden egg?
Simon Heffer.
London Daily Telegraph.
Monday, 3 February 2025.
PTG 4756-22812.

The public is used to crackpot academics whining about the wickedness of the British Empire, and not long ago I read about one who complained about how our forebears had “exploited” the people of India by making them play our sports, such as cricket and golf. A measure of this appalling exploitation is that, depending on which assessment one reads, the value of the Indian Premier League in 2024 was either £UK9.7 billion ($A19.4bn) or $UK13.4 bn ($A26.8bn)

As anyone who understands the politics and economics of cricket has known for some years, India controls the destiny of the game. Another part of its cricket empire has just been annexed, with the announcement on Friday that a consortium of (with one exception that we currently know of) India-born businessmen, based in Silicon Valley, has for £UK145 million ($A289m) bought a 49 per cent share in London Spirit (PTG 4753-22800, 1 February 2025). This is the part of the franchise of The Hundred based at Lord’s, or what the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) (the 51 percent shareholder, for the moment) calls “the home of cricket”.

The consortium apparently entered the bidding at the last minute. It was led by Satyan Gajwani, vice-chairman of the Indian digital titan Times Internet, and Nikesh Arora, of Palo Alto Networks. Five of the consortium have yet to be named, but all the six we know of are phenomenally rich and successful tech magnates, and five are Indian-Americans. Mr Gajwani is a real cricket empire-builder: he co-founded Major League Cricket in America. He and his friends paid twice what the Oval Invincibles franchise, across London, was deemed to be worth. 

The high price appears to have been down to the association with Lord’s and MCC, whose notional shareholding is just over £UK150 million ($A300m). Perhaps the ever-increasing membership subscriptions for an ever-diminishing amount of proper cricket at Lord’s will now, thanks to this massive windfall, be reduced: but I doubt it.

The old adage that if something looks too good to be true it probably is, applies here. The new shareholders may be based in California, but they are part of India’s cultural dominance of cricket. MCC would do well to consider how they might extract value from their lucrative shareholding: none of these gentlemen has succeeded by acting like a registered charity. Perhaps they believe that The Hundred, whose future appears guaranteed only until 2028 (for the length of its television contract) will catch on around the world; but that will happen only if the perfectly satisfactory (from the Indian Premier League's point of view) model of T20 is challenged and supplanted.

My suspicion, on the contrary, is that these very shrewd businessmen hope that, in three years’ time, The Hundred franchises (including theirs) will morph into T20 ones, and become part of an international T20 business controlled by people with strong links to the subcontinent. Logic and reality suggest there is not room in the fixture lists, or in the market, for both competitions, especially if no other big cricketing country is interested in adopting The Hundred. Indeed, why should any of them want to do so, given the unquestioned dominance of T20? English cricket administrators will be thrilled by these present developments, but thinking strategically about the future would be highly advisable.

Many people will feel untroubled by India’s supremacy in the commerce of the game: its plutocrats certainly cannot run it any worse than, say, English administrators have in recent years. However, this is going to have consequences for the beleaguered species of first-class cricket in general and Test cricket in particular. 

While a Darwinian battle takes place about what form of instant cricket will prevail, traditional cricket is likely to become ever more marginalised. Some Test series remain popular – notably any played in England, Australia or India. Those played elsewhere generate far less enthusiasm: the first Test in the current series between Sri Lanka and Australia at Galle had a sparse crowd, though that was extravagant by comparison with other countries where hardly anyone now turns up at all.

Some countries now send, effectively, second XIs to play Test series because their best players would rather earn serious money playing unserious cricket. As the standard of Test cricket declines further – as it will – some countries will give it up altogether and focus on the 20-over game. MCC, for all the money it has theoretically gained by being given 51 per cent of this franchise, has a membership that predominantly favours red-ball, or 50-over, cricket, where games are more meaningful and less of a predictable slogfest. As well as presenting a diet of frivolities, it is going to have to offer the sort of cricket its members tend to want. Even MCC members, however, might not want to watch just India and Australia Tests in alternate years, as Test cricket teams elsewhere curl up and die.

In an ideal world, MCC would seek another group of businessmen – or perhaps the same ones – to buy its own share, and stick the money in the bank while it can. But it would then have all sorts of cricket happening at Lord’s over which it had no control, for the franchise would be worth far less if it were played anywhere else. So the goose may not have laid the golden egg after all. What MCC should pray for is that The Hundred becomes a gilded T20 competition, which might be less offensive to some of its members. It may not take too long for that.

02/02

Who will The Trent Rockets get into bed with, the Greek Oligarch or some other billionaire group? Whoever it is Notts will need the money up front , something that might deter certain investors.

Hundred auction raising scarcely believable sums for event in its infancy

Great news for county balance sheets with value of competition set to come in at £800million — but will it be a good result for investors in the longer term?

Mike Atherton

Friday January 31 2025, 7.44pm, The Times

Often described as cricket’s Brexit, given how it has split opinion, the Hundred will produce an immediate financial dividend the likes of which the Brexiteers could only dream. After an astonishing bid valuing the London Spirit franchise at close to £300million on Friday, the eventual value of the entire tournament could come in at about £800million, producing an immediate windfall for each first-class county of between £10-12million, for the minority stakes that have been sold off.

London was the jewel in the Hundred’s crown, and Lord’s the most glittering host venue of them all, its name and cachet the only possible reason why the tech titans from America have ventured about £145million for 49 per cent of its franchise. The phrase “after the Lord Mayor’s show” came to mind for Cardiff, who nevertheless followed up with a still impressive bid from the owners of Washington Freedom of about £39million for their 49 per cent.

An £800million valuation for the Hundred would be scarcely believable for a competition in its infancy, for franchises with nascent balance sheets and uncertain future revenues, as well as for cash-strapped counties who will have a chance to repair their own balance sheets — if not their business models — now. Whether it will be a good result for investors remains to be seen, but, as suggested last week, it is a bet on the resilience of the global sports market and the direction of cricket to come.

In that sense, the Hundred will have delivered on the intentions of its architects, Tom Harrison and Colin Graves, which were focused resolutely on the bottom line. It was always about the money. Forget the talk of a new audience, the concept of the Hundred was, first and foremost, a hard-headed business decision designed to create non-member-owned entities, through which private investment could flow into English cricket for the first time.

And that was a perfectly rational position to take, by the way, the inevitable ructions to come between old and new, notwithstanding. With virtually every other cricketing nation attracting private investment, the competition for talent was likely to get more expensive. That, and the fear of declining interest and television revenues for bilateral international cricket, encouraged the ECB to want to control more of its destiny in-house.

So any judgment of the outcome of this sale process, has to focus primarily on the money as well. Sure, franchises want the right fit and Richard Thompson, the ECB chairman, has said he wants a variety of ownership — unlike South Africa, whose franchise tournament has become IPL-lite — but the final amount matters above all, because that was the overwhelming reason for it.

And after two days of the auction, the coffers have been filling up. The four lots of 49 per cent each of the Oval, Lord’s, Cardiff and Birmingham have been sold for just shy of £300million in total. Three of the four winning bidders are non-IPL, leaving some of the key IPL players, such as the Sun group, and Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG group, to get involved for Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham next week.

But what constitutes a good financial outcome? In November 2022, the private equity firm, Bridgepoint, made a speculative offer of £400million for the entire tournament, which could be fairly taken as a minimum acceptable figure for the value of any sale thereafter.

In late 2022, on England’s tour of Pakistan, Thompson set a much higher benchmark when responding to the Bridgepoint news. “We would need to think very long and hard if we were to sell four or five weeks of the English summer to a third party,” he said. “What we won’t do is be opportunistic. We’ll think things through and we won’t sell the game short. Lucknow Super Giants, one team in the IPL, sold for a billion. One team. That should establish a benchmark of value. I think we’ve got a long way to go before we do something,” he said.

Thompson’s “long time” duly became two years, and it is likely that the result will sit closer to a billion-pound marker than to Bridgepoint’s. Once contracts are signed and sealed — an exclusivity period will follow now — it will, in any event, be a very sizeable windfall that has come to English cricket — although the extent of the outlay also means it more likely the investors will want to call the shots as well.

With the arrival of private money, English cricket has taken a radical, irreversible new direction. That the debate will continue, was evidenced on social media on Thursday, when two former England cricketers, Michael Vaughan and Jack Russell, jousted about what it all means for the county game, with Vaughan arguing the money will help its survival and Russell calling it a short-term fix. What happens, Russell wondered, when this money runs out?

There is so much that is yet uncertain. How wisely, for example, will the non-host counties use the money? How much influence will the new investors look to exert as they try to recoup these enormous sums? For now, ECB and the architects of the Hundred can reflect on things with some satisfaction: they created a new competition to raise money for the English game and that is exactly what it has done. As one disappointed potential investor said to me on Friday: for the ECB, this week has been “a very good result”.

 

Google and Microsoft chiefs invest £147m in Lord’s Hundred franchise

Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai part of tech consortium who emerged victorious after three-hour bidding war that also involved Man United co-owner Avram Glazer

Elizabeth Ammon

Friday January 31 2025, 5.00pm, The Times

A 49 per cent share of the Lord’s Hundred franchise has been sold to a consortium of Silicon Valley tech giants for £147million after a fierce three-hour bidding war.

The consortium, which includes the chief executives of Google and Microsoft, will pay 2½ times as much as the Oval team fetched at an auction on Thursday afternoon. It means the ECB has already raised almost £300million from the equity sale of Hundred teams.

The auction took place between four bidders — RPSG, the owners of Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL, the Silicon Valley tech consortium, the Manchester United co-owner Avram Glazer, and Cain International, who have a stake in Chelsea FC. Bids were taken every few minutes from the prospective investors although it is understood that it came down to a bidding war between RPSG and the tech consortium, with the price going up by about £3million every 15 minutes until eventually RSPG dropped out of the race.

MCC will be the majority owners of the team and it is understood to not be selling on any more of its stake. It will work with the new investors on cricketing and marketing operations and it is probable there will be a change in the name of the team, called London Spirit at present, from 2026 onwards to reflect the new ownership.

The consortium comprises a group of 11 senior executives using their own money and includes the chief executive of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, who was born in Hyderabad in India but now has American citizenship. Nadella, 47, took charge at Microsoft in 2014.

It also includes Sundar Pichai, 52, the chief executive of Google who was born in Madurai in India before moving to the United States to study at Stanford University, and Shantanu Narayen, the chief executive of Adobe, another Indian-American businessman. Nikesh Arora, formerly a senior executive at Google who has an estimated personal net wealth of $1.5billion, is also involved alongside Satyan Gajwani, the co-founder of Major League Cricket and vice-chairman of Times Internet, and Egon Durban, the chief executive of Silver Lake Management.

In the second part of Friday’s auction, another Indian-American businessman paid about £39million for 49 per cent of Welsh Fire, the Cardiff-based franchise.

Sanjay Govil already owns Washington Freedom, a Major League Cricket (MLC) franchise. His investment valued the whole of Welsh Fire at about £80milllion. Govil’s Washington-based team won the American T20 competition last year with a strong Australian spine: Ricky Ponting as coach, Steve Smith as captain, and Travis Head as the player of the season.

Stakes in the four remaining Hundred franchises will be auctioned off next week.

The ECB hoped to raise about £300million from the sale of 49 per cent of each of the eight teams in the Hundred but are on course to exceed that by some way, with Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Trent Rockets and Southern Brave all still to be sold. The auction for the Old Trafford, Headingley and Trent Bridge franchises will take place on Monday, with Hampshire a week later on February 10.

There will now be a period of exclusivity during which the finer details of the contracts will be negotiated with the new investors, including whether the money they paid for the franchises will be handed over in one go to the ECB or whether payments will be spread over the next three to five years.

From the 49 per cent equity sale, the first £275million is split between the 18 first-class counties, the MCC and 10 per cent goes to the recreational game. Then the profits raised between £275million and £425million are split only between the 11 counties who do not host international cricket and the recreational game; anything over £425million is again split between the 18 counties and the MCC meaning that the non-host counties could be in line for a windfall of more than £20million from the sale.

On Thursday, the Ambani Family, the owners of Mumbai Indians, paid more than £60million for a stake in Oval Invincibles while Knighthead Capital, who own Birmingham City Football Club and who have Tom Brady, the former NFL star, as one of their minority shareholders, were successful in their bid to buy Birmingham Phoenix, paying £40million for the 49 per cent stake.

01/02

Jaw-dropping Hundred auction stuns critics and catapults English cricket to a new level

Nick Hoult

Domestic game changes forever in Mayfair as millions come flooding in to give some of the world’s richest men a slice of the pie

In an office block in Mayfair’s Berkeley Square, English cricket changed forever on Friday. It was at the marbled London headquarters of American investment bankers the Raine Group that some of the world’s richest businessmen fought fiercely for stakes in the Hundred and money rained down on the English game.

Counties can now expect an immediate windfall of around £11 million each and grass-roots cricket an injection of £40 million after 49 per cent stakes in four of the eight teams – London Spirit (Lord’s), Oval Invincibles, Welsh Fire and Birmingham Phoenix – were sold for £280 million. It shows the allure of English cricket’s heritage. To be associated with Lord’s, the Oval and Edgbaston means something and should boost the game’s self-confidence.

Officials of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) cannot believe the sums of money. Earlier this week they were nervously briefing to lower expectations. Now they can celebrate a bulging pot of gold that will protect county cricket for decades, if spent wisely.

Staggered ECB executives could not believe what they were witnessing as a bidding war for the Lord’s-based London Spirit broke out between the winning consortium of Silicon Valley moguls and the owners of the Indian Premier League’s Lucknow franchise. From a starting bid of £60 million for the 49 per cent stake on offer, the Spirit were eventually sold for £145 million after three hours of intense auctioneering with the price rocketing by £3 million every 15 minutes.

After the Ambani family bought the Oval Invincibles on Thursday, American football legend and investor Tom Brady added Birmingham to his portfolio and the chief executives of Google, Adobe and Microsoft teamed up to buy London Spirit. English cricket can now tap into world-leading business expertise and innovation as it looks to expand the game to new audiences who consume content differently.

English cricket is a small village, rarely does it open its doors to new money, new ideas and new people. ECB chairmen usually serve their apprenticeships in the shires. Now the game has a different dynamic that is exciting, but there will be inevitable pinch points and clashes of interest that need to be managed correctly. Counties will have to accept new partners and the ECB deal with rich, powerful men used to having their own way. It will take strong leadership and goodwill from both sides.

English cricket owes a huge debt of gratitude to Colin Graves, Tom Harrison and Sanjay Patel. Graves was the ECB chairman who bullied and cajoled the counties into accepting a new competition. Patel was the marketing man who came up with the format and Harrison the chief executive who made it happen. All copped flak, sometimes brutally personal, for trying to change English cricket.

They did not always help themselves but from nothing they created an asset for English cricket to sell and protect itself from relying solely on the international game for income. Bilateral series outside those between the big three will not finance the English game for much longer. A new tournament was needed and sadly for the traditionalists, young people, the broadcasters and sponsors were put off by county brands seen as old, traditional and stuffy.

The Hundred concept was invented to delineate the new competition from the Twenty20 Blast and, ironically, satisfy the two men who run the game now.

Richard Thompson and Richard Gould were fierce opponents of a new competition because they felt it would emasculate the counties and harm Surrey, the club they were elected or paid to run. But once they moved from opposition benches to actually running the show at the ECB, they shifted and realised it would be their job to take the Graves-Harrison-Patel vision forward and bring in some actual money.

The game got lucky. It needed Graves’ Yorkshire bluntness to force through change. But it was the more diplomatic skills of Richards that brought everyone together behind a strategy for selling it off because, in the end, the Hundred was always all about money. It could not be squandered.

On his second day as chair in 2022, Thompson was offered around £400 million by private equity firm Bridgepoint to buy 75 per cent of the whole competition off the ECB and take options on each team.

Thompson was under pressure from the counties to cash in but did not want to cede control of the prime weeks of the summer to an outside agency. Instead the two Richards set about finding a compromise, taking people with them rather than arm-twisting.

By splitting the equity 49 per cent to the board, 51 to the host club and splitting the money across the board it reached an agreement acceptable to a group of counties who rarely agree on anything.

They had opposition. Not that long ago, Lalit Modi, founder of the IPL, called the ECB’s sale a ‘Ponzi scheme’ but his fellow Indian investors have rushed in to buy.

As one senior ECB executive said: “This will have a profound impact on the fabric of the game.” Counties can pay off debt, and apply to invest in capital-expenditure projects that have a real business benefit. Clubs like Kent and Worcestershire can seriously consider whether they should move away from grounds built in the Victorian era and lacking in the modern world.

There is no reason why a serious state school cricket project cannot be funded by the ECB, the grass-roots clubs and leagues receive a shot of investment to improve community facilities and the women’s game.

The powerful, connected new owners can lure the best players to light up the Hundred and grow the tournament into the second-best franchise league in the world behind the IPL.

Doing so will help them receive a return on their investment. It is hard to see at this stage how that will happen. Broadcast rights are not going up because pay television companies are strapped for cash. You cannot expand the grounds to pack in more fans and the owners only lease the stadiums for four home games. But they are betting that the Hundred will expand as international bilateral cricket reduces and that is an alarm bell for many to worry for the future. There are always pitfalls when new money flows in.

Not that long ago domestic cricket teams were chaired by a well-heeled local businessman who loved the game. For years Derbyshire were run by Don Amott, whose family money came from a caravan park just off the A50 between Derby and Uttoxeter.

Now the chief executives of Microsoft, Google, an iconic American sportsman and Asia’s richest family have stakes in the future of English cricket. A nightingale definitely sang for its supper in Berkeley Square this week.

31/01

Welsh Go West 

Tech consortium buys Lord's stake

30/01

Tom Brady and Asia’s richest family pump £100m into English cricket

Will MacPherson 30/01

English cricket raised more than £100 million on the first day of the Hundred franchise sale after stakes were sold to Asia’s richest family and the Tom Brady-backed American investment fund that owns Birmingham City.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is selling its 49 per cent stake in each of the eight Hundred teams. Oval Invincibles were the first team sold, with the Ambanis, who own Reliance Industries and Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians, winning the auction.

The franchise was valued at £123 million and the Ambanis have bought a 49 per cent stake, partnering with Surrey CCC, meaning around £61 million will be distributed in the English game as a result.

Next to be sold were Edgbaston-based Birmingham Phoenix, who are understood to have been bought by Knighthead Capital, which has owned Birmingham City alongside Brady, the NFL legend, since 2023.

The host county of each Hundred franchise retain 51 per cent to do what they please with: keep it, or sell some or all of it. Warwickshire are understood to have kept hold of their 51 per cent, with the Birmingham franchise valued at a little over £80 million, which means around £40 million goes to the English game.

On Friday, Lord’s-based London Spirit and Cardiff’s Welsh Fire will be sold. Spirit are expected to fetch the highest price of the eight teams, with four potential investors in the running. They are: Manchester United co-chairman Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital; Cain International, which is led by Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein and backed by the football club’s joint-owner, Todd Boehly; Sanjiv Goenka, owner of IPL team Lucknow Super Giants; a Silicon Valley consortium including Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe CEO), Egon Durban (Silver Lake CEO) and led by Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto CEO).

The Silicon Valley group were beaten to the Oval team by the Ambanis. So were CVC Capital Partners, the private investment firm that has a share in the Six Nations among other investments. CVC was also in the mix to buy Birmingham Phoenix.

The winning bidders now enter a six-week period of exclusivity with the host venue and ECB to thrash out the details. The 2025 Hundred will largely be unaffected but the 2026 edition is likely to look and feel markedly different, including in the branding and names of teams.

Mumbai Indians have won five of the 17 IPL seasons, making them the joint-most successful franchise. Their brand has already spread to franchise competitions beyond the IPL, with teams in South Africa’s SA20 (MI Cape Town), UAE’s ILT20 (MI Emirates), the Major League Cricket (MI New York) in the United States, and India’s Women’s Premier League.

Mumbai’s tycoon owner is Mukesh Ambani, who was valued at £119.5 billion last year. The Ambanis will now enter into a partnership with Surrey. It is understood that powerbrokers at Surrey have agreed to share cricketing control as part of the deal. They had initially been keen to retain control of all cricketing and branding matters, as part of their 51 per cent stake.

After London Spirit and Welsh Fire on Friday, Manchester Originals are due to be sold on Monday, Northern Superchargers on Tuesday, and Trent Rockets on Wednesday. The final team, Southampton-based Southern Brave, will be sold last. They are a unique case as their controlling county, Hampshire, are owned by GMR, the Indian co-owner of Delhi Capitals. GMR is the strong favourite to buy the ECB’s 49 per cent share.

Each host venue has taken at least two potential investors through to the final round. In the case of counties with two potential options in the final round, the investors table a final, binding bid. The highest wins. In the case of hosts who have taken more than two investors through to the final round, there is an auction between the three or four interested parties. Bids are placed in 15-minute intervals, until the highest wins. Each bid is binding.

The proceeds of the sale of the 49 per cent will be spread between the counties, the MCC and the recreational game. If the hosts sell any of their 51 per cent, they keep the majority of the proceeds, with 10 per cent going to the recreational game and 10 per cent spread between the other counties. The Raine Group and Deloitte, who have advised on the sale, will also receive fees.

ECB chairman Richard Thompson has previously said that the governing body does not want the sale of the Hundred to lead to an “IPL takeover” as is the case in the SA20, in which all six teams are owned by Indian franchises. The ECB is keen for around half of the Hundred teams to be owned by IPL teams.

At this stage, the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knights Riders, two of the most significant IPL teams who have also popped up in franchise leagues elsewhere, have withdrawn. This stems from a belief that the Hundred is overpriced, a frustration with an ECB sales process that has changed regularly, and difficulties with the “participation agreement”, key documentation that has been a bone of contention for a number of investors. CSK are unlikely to re-enter the process, but insiders believe that KKR could come back into contention next week.

Who are the Ambanis?

Last year, the rich and famous from across the world flooded to India for the different stages of the wedding of Anant Ambani to Radhika Merchant.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were among the guests and Rihanna performed at the event of the year, which became a definitive display of the Ambani family’s power and wealth. It is estimated to have cost around half a billion dollars.

Anant is the younger son of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire owner of Reliance Industries, whose businesses include energy, petrochemicals, retail, entertainment and mass media. This has made him the richest man in Asia and the ninth-richest in the world. In October last year the tycoon was valued at $119.5 billion [£95.87 billion]. And now, he and his family are part-owners of the Hundred franchise Oval Invincibles.

The Ambani family have been familiar to fans of cricket since 2008, when they bought Mumbai Indians, the joint-most successful team in the history of the Indian Premier League. The family business has since expanded to other T20 leagues, in Dubai, New York and Cape Town. They have added Oval Invincibles to their portfolio, although having purchased a 49 per cent share, they will not wield as much control in London as they do elsewhere. They will have to work alongside Surrey, English cricket’s wealthiest county.

Mukesh Ambani is 67 and has been married to his wife Nita since 1985. She is a prominent figure, alongside their eldest son Akash, in the running of the family’s cricket operations. Akash, who is three years older than Anant, has a twin sister, Isha.

As well as many other lavish properties around the world, the Ambanis own Stoke Park, the country club in Buckinghamshire, which they bought for £57 million in 2021.

29/01

Selling the Family Silver

Same story on the BBC

Will Macpherson - Daily Telegraph 28/01

The Hundred sale is entering its endgame, with stakes in four of the franchises to be sold this week, and the remaining four next week.

English cricket is looking to raise hundreds of millions of pounds by selling stakes in each of the eight men’s and women’s teams in the divisive short-form competition that will enter its fifth season this summer.

A months-long process now reaches its third and final stage, with potential investors to make final offers to the England and Wales Cricket Board and each team’s host venue in an auction process. Here is everything you need to know.

What is for sale?

The ECB will sell 49 per cent of each Hundred franchise, and hand the remaining 51 per cent to the host county to keep or sell. So, up for sale is between 49 per cent and 100 per cent of each team.

How will the sale work?

Each host venue has taken at least two potential investors into the final round and some as many as four. In the case of counties with two potential options in the final round, the investors will table a final, binding bid. The highest wins.

Those hosts who have taken more than two potential investors through will see an auction between the three or four interested parties. Eventually, the highest bid will win. Each bid will be binding.

The introduction of an auction is a late change. Previously, all teams were expected to be sold to best and final sealed bids, with the highest winning.

In what order will the teams be sold, and why?

The order the franchises will be sold in has been a matter of much intrigue among host venues in recent weeks. The New York-based Raine Group is one of the ECB’s advisers on the sale, and has come up with the batting order, taking into account which teams have duplicate investors, and an attempt to maximise value.

On Thursday, Oval Invincibles will be the first team to be sold, followed by Birmingham Phoenix. On Friday, a stake in London Spirit will be sold, then Cardiff-based Welsh Fire.

There will be a break over the weekend, before the remaining teams are sold next week.

The order is expected to be: Manchester Originals, then Headingley-based Northern Superchargers, then Trent Rockets of Nottingham.

The final sale will be of Southern Brave, who are in a unique position because their host county, Hampshire, are already privately owned, by the GMR group, co-owner of IPL team Delhi Capitals. It is expected that GMR will pick up the ECB’s 49 pert cent share, thus taking full control of Southern Brave.

Which investors are understood to be bidding for which teams?

Oval Invincibles

Surrey have been clear that they want to keep hold of their 51 per cent, and retain control of cricketing operations and the name of the team. Bidding for the Invincibles are the Ambanis, Asia’s richest family who own Mumbai Indians, and a Silicon Valley consortium that includes Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe CEO), Egon Durban (Silver Lake CEO) and is led by Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto. Private investment firm CVC has also shown strong interest.

Birmingham Phoenix

Warwickshire have also preferred to keep their 51 per cent, and run the cricket. Knighthead Capital, which owns Birmingham City alongside former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, is the favourite, but there has also been strong interest from CVC and the owners of Aston Villa.

London Spirit

The owners of Spirit will partner with Marylebone Cricket Club, which held a members vote to confirm its involvement in the process. The Lord’s factor means Spirit are expected to fetch the highest offers.

MCC is understood to have overlooked the Ambanis, but has one IPL team still in the running, Lucknow Super Giants and their owner, Sanjiv Goenka. Also in the mix are the Silicon Valley consortium Cain International – led by Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein and backed by the club’s joint-owner Todd Boehly – and Lancer Capital, for whom Manchester United co-chairman Avram Glazer serves as chairman (Lancer own Desert Vipers in the UAE’s ILT20).

Welsh Fire

Glamorgan have declared that they will also only be selling 49 per cent. Among those interested are the owner of Major League Cricket’s Washington Freedom, Sanjay Govil, and Capri International, which owns UP Warriorz in India’s Women’s Premier League.

Manchester Originals

Lancashire have aimed for an IPL or established franchise cricket partner, and have Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants in the mix. Originals are expected to fetch the third-highest price, after the London teams.

Northern Superchargers

Yorkshire are interested in selling a good chunk – and perhaps all – of their 51 per cent in order to pay off debts and invest in infrastructure, making them an attractive option for an IPL team looking for full control. Sunrisers Hyderabad are among those interested. So were Chennai Super Kings, although some insiders believe they have withdrawn from the process following disagreements with the ECB over the participation agreement.

Trent Rockets

Rockets are also thought to be prepared to sell some of their share, and are looking to the IPL. Sunrisers and Washington Freedom are in the shake-up there, too.

Southern Brave

Overwhelmingly expected to sell to GMR, which already owns Hampshire.

How much will be raised, and where will the money go?

The ECB say they initially set a private benchmark of £350 million for 100 per cent of all teams. After the first round of bidding, in October, Telegraph Sport reported that 100 per cent of the eight teams had been valued at more than £650 million. Insiders now believe that anything less than £500 million as a final figure – ie all eight sets of 49 per cent, plus some of the hosts’ shares – would represent a disappointment.

So the number will be striking, but some critics of the ECB believe a simpler process could have raised even more.

As for dividing the proceeds...

The proceeds of the 49 per cent sold would be split as follows:

• the first 10 per cent to the recreational game, with the rest shared by the counties
• of the counties’ share, the first £275 million shared 19 ways (between the 18 first-class counties and MCC)
• the next £150 million shared between the 11 non-hosts
• all proceeds above £425 million shared 19 ways once more

The proceeds of the 51 per cent would be split as follows:

• the first 10 per cent to the recreational game
• the next 80 per cent to the host county
• the final 10 per cent split by the other 17 counties and MCC

What happens next?

The winning bidders and the host counties will iron out the details of their deals, with some of the teams possibly changing names and colours.

For 2025 – which the ECB is calling a “transitional season” – the Hundred is likely to look largely the same as the previous season, before major change in 2026, when the new owners will have their feet under the table.

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Why Hundred sale is huge bet on future of global sporting market

English cricket faces a very significant moment with a large windfall about to land, but the upward trajectory of the investment cannot be guaranteed with markets being so volatile

 

Wednesday January 22 2025, 4.30pm, The Times Michael Atherton

 

It remains an indelible image of someone who thought he had won the lottery: a few keepie-uppies (with skill and chutzpah, it must be said), before running half the length of the pitch, slotting the ball into the empty net and raising both arms to the Stretford End. Manchester United v Arsenal, August 19, 1989, the day Michael Knighton thought he had bought the greatest club in the land.

 

For a snip, too. What does he think now, I wonder, having seen Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recent investment of more than £1billion for a minority stake in the club? Who knows whether Knighton saw the future coming fast and that there was a one-way bet to be made, but in any event he failed to raise the £10million needed to buy the chairman Martin Edwards’s majority share of the club. Knighton: the man who won the lottery, but lost the ticket.

 

While the bursting of the dotcom bubble, the global financial crisis and Covid have reminded us since then that financial markets tend to go up incrementally and fall precipitously, sport has been on a blinding run for 30 years — a one-way elevator to the heavens. Through the investment of satellite television companies and, more latterly, through wealthy individuals, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds, the value of the global sports market has suffered no such setbacks.

Cricket has only been sipping from the punchbowl, in relative terms. Following the hiatus after Kerry Packer, it was only with the advent of the short-lived Indian Cricket League, and then the Indian Premier League, that private money arrived in earnest. English cricket joined later still, the sorry Allen Stanford saga notwithstanding: Hampshire’s sale to India’s GMR group last year was the first investment into county cricket by a non-English private entity and the next fortnight should bring the final steps towards formalising investments into the Hundred franchises.

This week, the ECB and the host counties have been whittling down the potential investors to a final list. A prospective investor is allowed to bid for multiple franchises at once, and each franchise has now settled on their final two or three best bidders. It is an eclectic mix of potential suitors: IPL owners, private equity, tech consortiums and wealthy individuals make up the list.

 

 

Next week, day-by-day, what those with knowledge of the sale call a “cascade” process will begin in order to finalise the pairings of seller and buyer. The ECB’s shares (49 per cent) in the most valuable offerings — the two London franchises — are likely to be auctioned off first. Disappointed bidders who are on multiple lists will be given the opportunity to go back into the auction to invest in their chosen teams further down the line — Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, etc — that might be perceived to be of lower value.

 

Whether the host venues intend to sell off any of their 51 per cent stakes will be a factor in the scale of the final bids, as well as the sequential nature of the bidding. A club like Yorkshire, for example, will be likely to sell their 51 per cent as well, because of their financially straitened circumstances, and IPL franchises may jump at the chance for full ownership, rather than the minority ownership they will get in partnership with the Oval or Lord’s, say, who have indicated an unwillingness to sell their own shares.

 

The ultimate expectation now is that more money will be raised than previously anticipated. A baseline figure was provided by Bridgepoint’s putative bid for the competition two years ago, when it was reported that they made an offer that would have valued the competition at £400million. The eventual sums are likely to top that mark.

 

But how to value 49 per cent (or possibly more if the host venues want to sell some or all of their gifted 51 per cent) of a recently created franchise? (The Hundred only launched in 2021.) What are these investors buying? There are no hard assets to speak of — the grounds are owned by the counties; players are on short-term contracts; there is little on the balance sheets by way of profits so far to justify high multiples; and future revenues are uncertain.

 

From the investors’ perspective, a number of factors are at play, despite these uncertainties. For IPL franchises, it is a chance to spend some of their now healthy profits from the Indian competition in a diversified way. It is a chance to further embed themselves in what might be seen as a global franchise network, ready for the day when that takes precedence over bilateral international cricket. Some IPL owners now have cricket assets across the globe — in India, South Africa, UAE, the Caribbean, United States — and want to add England to the list.

Among them, there are wealthy families for whom cricket is a love and the chance to get a foot in the door of a place like Lord’s is too good an opportunity to miss. For them, risks are acceptable, given the scarcity value of what is on offer. For private equity firms, the sums can only make sense in the context of a bet upon the future direction of the game, where domestic rather than international cricket drives the calendar.

 

 

Their outlay is also a bet on the future direction of the global sporting market: backing a force that has been unstoppable for a generation. Whether the business and value of sport can continue its upward trajectory at the pace it has set for the past 30-odd years, since Knighton’s attempted buyout of United, is doubtful, but many have been calling the top of the market for a long time to no avail.

Sport in that sense is a unique investment and works to its own rules. Lots of questions remain to be answered as to how happily the traditional parts of the game (member-owned counties) will be able to sit alongside these more market-driven franchises. Nevertheless, as a large windfall prepares to land, what cannot be debated is that a very significant moment for the English game has arrived.

18/01

A new ICC sanctioned T20 Franchise competition for those "quiet months" of July and August in Scotland, Ireland and Netherlands. It's bound to interest some of those white ball specialists that fall short of the H*ndred draft.

ETPL

FLEMING JUMPS BRAVE

Will MacPherson

IPL super coach Stephen Fleming has left his role with Southern Brave in a blow to the Hundred ahead of a seminal fifth season.

Legendary former New Zealand captain Fleming, 51, has coached Southampton-based Brave for the past two seasons, in which they finished third and second respectively.

As a coach he is best known for winning the IPL five times with Chennai Super Kings, whom he has led since 2009. He has also worked for the Super Kings’ franchise teams in both the United States (Major League Cricket’s Texas Super Kings) and South Africa (the SA20’s Joburg Super Kings). He is currently coaching the latter and is expected to work in MLC in 2025, which could clash with the Hundred.

Last year Hampshire were bought by GMR, the co-owners of Delhi Capitals, effectively giving them a controlling stake (51 per cent) of Southern Brave. Fleming has not coached a team owned by a current IPL franchise other than CSK before, but it is understood that he is leaving Brave for family reasons.

GMR’s control over Southern Brave is likely to grow in the coming months, with GMR favourites to buy the 49 per cent stake in the team who the England and Wales Cricket Board are in the process of selling. The sales process is entering its final stage, which will see GMR and at least one other bidder make a best and final offer for the minority share in Southern Brave. The ECB are insistent that if GMR is to buy the 49 per cent it must be at market rate, because the proceeds are spread throughout the game.

It is understood that Adi Birrell, the South African who coaches Hampshire, is likely to lead the team on an interim basis this year. Like Fleming, Birrell also coaches in the SA20, with two-time champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Southern Brave will make a call on a permanent head coach when the Hundred sales process is complete.

At that point, Fleming could return to the Hundred – perhaps even with a CSK-owned team. They are among the IPL franchises jostling for a stake in the team, including Headingley-based Northern Superchargers. Executives from both Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, who are selling Trent Rockets, were in India last week meeting franchises.

Hundred teams are currently working on the retention and release of players before this year’s draft, which will take place in the second half of March. This year, there have been significant changes in the men’s competition, with teams able to sign one overseas player directly before the draft, and a rise in pay, so the top category is worth £200,000. Teams can retain a maximum of 10 of their squad.

It is understood that London Spirit are in final negotiations for Kane Williamson to become their captain in an arrangement that could also see him play for Middlesex this summer. It is also likely that some local Spirit players (such as Liam Dawson, who is wanted by Welsh Fire, and Dan Lawrence) could leave.

One player likely to stay at Southern Brave is James Vince, who confirmed Telegraph Sport’s report that he would be sitting out the first-class season with Hampshire this year to focus on white-ball cricket and fulfil a deal with Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League. Vince has stepped down as Hampshire’s club captain, and revealed that repeated attacks on his family home have seen him relocate to Dubai.

15/01

From Lancashire CCC to their members (make of it what you will)

The Club has made the decision to delay the next Members’ Forum, previously scheduled for Tuesday 21 January. This is due to the ECB pushing back the third phase of the Hundred investment process. To provide as best an update as possible for Members, the latest Forum will take place when the third round is complete.

 

With that in mind, the Forum has been rescheduled for Monday 3 February and will take place in the Members' Suite at Emirates Old Trafford between 18:00 - 20:00. The evening will include tabletop sessions where Members will be invited to share their feedback on specified topics relating to The Hundred investment process.  Key things that we would like to discuss include the nature of our preferred partner, the potential financial outcome and most importantly the potential use of any funds generated.

 

There is no requirement for Members to pre-register their attendance. Complimentary car parking will be available to those attending the event on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

Lancashire Cricket

More delays represent a set back for Trent Bridge PLC, if their pavilion development financing plans remain with all eggs in the Rocket investor's basket.

12/01

BPL miss payment of players

10/01

Mickey taking the Mickey

01/01

It's well over two months since Ms Pursehouse last pretended to include Members in the decision making process of selling the family silver to some random deep pocketed individual: do we conclude that the deal has been done or that the deal has fallen through? The latter might explain why no work has started at the pavilion end of Trent Bridge, however.

The favoured usual suspects in the media have been unusually tight-lipped on the sale of the cursed competition recently also...