THE England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) should offer the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) a minority ownership stake in The Hundred to attract Indian players to the competition, Lancashire CEO Daniel Gidney has suggested.
“I think it’s possible. If I was the ECB, I’d be talking about perhaps bringing the BCCI in as a minority ownership partner in the tournament as a whole. If you do that, then you are aligning interests,” Gidney told the ESPNCricinfo website.
Indian men’s cricketers currently only play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), with the BCCI not issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for overseas events. But Gidney said a partnership could change this situation.
“That is probably your best chance of getting Indian players in The Hundred. It comes down to the will, and the individuals on both sides,” he said.
Gidney acknowledged the BCCI’s successful strategy of restricting player availability, saying: “If I was the BCCI, I would need a significant incentive to relax the current policy, because it has been extraordinarily successful and has grown the IPL into the massive commercial entity that it is.”
His comments come after Lancashire finalised a deal with the RPSG Group, owners of IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants, who will take a 70 per cent stake in Manchester Originals.
This acquisition is part of a wider trend, with the ECB selling its 49 per cent stake in The Hundred franchises to various private investors.
Several IPL owners bought into the competition, including Mumbai Indians (Oval Invincibles), Lucknow Super Giants (Manchester Originals) and Delhi Capitals (Southern Brave).
IPL team owners have already expanded globally with stakes in leagues in South Africa (SA20), the UAE (ILT20) and the USA (Major League Cricket).
Gidney highlighted Lancashire’s strong connections with Indian cricket, saying: “We’ve probably had more Indian overseas players than any other county. When you have VVS Laxman at the NCA [National Cricket Academy in India], who Mark Chilton (Lancashire director of cricket) captained, then you have strong relationships all the way through.”
Meanwhile, the ECB CEO, Richard Gould, has said the board was open to potentially changing The Hundred from its current 100-ball format to traditional T20 cricket, though no formal talks have yet taken place.
“Those discussions have not taken place internally. And it’s not on people’s agenda. At some point, if that’s something they want to discuss, yeah, of course we’ll have that discussion,” Gould said.
He stressed that any decision would rest with the ECB board, but acknowledged the value of the new investors’ expertise. “We’ve got some amazing investors that have arrived. And we would be foolish if we were not to take advice, guidance and counsel as to how to take this game forward.”
Gould added: “It’s got to be collaborative. They’re bringing a lot more investment and a lot of thought. The Hundred’s been incredible in terms of delivering innovation into the game in the last three or four years. If you look at the investors we’ve just brought in, that’s going to superpower that.”
The Hundred currently features 100 balls per innings with 20 sets of five balls each, rather than the standard T20 format of 20 overs containing six balls each. Any format changes would require approval from broadcaster Sky Sports, which holds rights to the tournament until 2028.
