The Hundred’s billion-pound windfall will secure ‘English cricket’s future’

IN A landmark deal that promises to transform English cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has secured nearly £1 billion through the sale of stakes in The Hundred franchises.

“In the past few days, we’ve reached a seminal moment for cricket in England and Wales,” the ECB chairman, Richard Thompson, said.

The deals bring together Indian cricket powerhouses, Silicon Valley tech leaders, and American sports investors.

The eight teams in The Hundred, a cricket tournament featuring 100-ball matches, have been valued at £975 million collectively. This figure far exceeds the ECB’s initial estimate of £350m and brings much needed financial support to English cricket’s struggling county system.

Four wealthy Indian Premier League (IPL) teams secured significant stakes in the competition. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, owners of Mumbai Indians, has invested £60m for a 49 per cent share in the Oval Invincibles. The Sun Group, which owns Sunrisers Hyderabad, acquired complete ownership of the Northern Superchargers from Yorkshire County Cricket Club for £100m.

RPSG, owners of Lucknow Super Giants, will control 70 per cent of the Manchester Originals, while GMR Group, co-owners of Delhi Capitals, has bought a 49 per cent stake in Southern Brave for £48m.

The highest individual investment came from a Silicon Valley consortium, which was backed by tech industry leaders including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayan. It paid £145m for a stake in London Spirit, based at Lord’s cricket ground. This values Spirit at more than £290m, making it the most valuable team in the competition.

The ECB chief executive, Richard Gould, believes the investment is crucial for keeping top cricket talent in England during the summer months. “In order to protect our Test cricket and international cricket, we also need to make sure The Hundred window attracts the very best players in the world,” he said. “We know that players’ salaries will increase significantly in The Hundred in future years. That is going to happen because we need to make sure we are the leaders in the global market during the English summer.”

Richard Thompson

The ECB plans to use this windfall to secure the future of English cricket. Of the money raised, £520m will be reinvested in the sport, with £50m specifically earmarked for recreational and grassroots cricket. The remaining £470m will be distributed among the 18 first-class counties and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), with larger shares going to counties that do not host The Hundred teams.

“Our aim now is to ensure the necessary steps are taken to finalise this process, in order to unlock the transformative impact that these new partners will bring to the competition,” Thompson said.

American investors have also shown keen interest in the tournament. Todd Boehly, who owns the Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club, agreed to pay nearly £40m for 49 per cent of Trent Rockets through his company Cain International. Knighthead Capital Management, whose investors inc star Tom Brady, has bought into Birmingham Phoenix, adding to their existing ownership of Birmingham City Football Club.

The Hundred, which was launched in 2021, features both men’s and women’s teams and aims to attract new audiences to cricket with its faster-paced format. However, the tournament has faced criticism from traditional cricket fans, who argue it takes players away from county cricket during the peak summer season.

Tech entrepreneur Sanjay Govil, owner of Major League Cricket champions Washington Freedom, has joined the party, agreeing to pay Glamorgan £40m for 49 per cent of Welsh Fire.

Gould expressed confidence in The Hundred’s future position: “What you are seeing is competition within windows. We want to make sure that we are the dominant competition and I think we’re well placed to do that.”

According to experts, the challenge now will be to balance the commercial success of The Hundred with the preservation of cricket’s traditional formats and the development of the grassroots game.