Sale will hasten march of global franchise circuit, but should also safeguard county finances despite divisive process
Matt Roller06-Feb-20251:42
Roller: Hundred equity sales a success for the ECB
The numbers have been staggering. Over the past week, the final round of the sales process managed by the Raine Group and Deloitte has given six teams in the Hundred a total valuation approaching £800 million, more than half of which will be shared out across the English game. It means a vast injection of cash is imminent, from top to bottom.It also means the latest step towards a global franchise market, with IPL owners buying stakes in three of the six teams sold so far. Reliance, the Ambani-owned conglomerate, can now count Oval Invincibles among their six teams, along with Mumbai Indians (IPL and WPL), MI Cape Town (SA20), MI Emirates (ILT20) and MI New York (MLC). Their multi-club model is cricket’s answer to the City Football Group.Countless players already feature for the same franchise in two or more leagues, and Hundred teams found that overseas players would not commit to the 2025 season before the results of the sales process started to emerge. This year, expect the new direct signing model to extend some players’ associations with certain owners; in future, franchises will soon offer retainers to play for their teams worldwide.Related
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It was a decade ago that Kolkata Knight Riders bought the Trinidad and Tobago CPL team, the first instance of an IPL franchise expanding overseas. Now, the vast majority of IPL teams have interests outside of India. The BCCI have ensured that the IPL’s window has only grown incrementally since 2008, but franchises themselves have quickly become year-round, global operations.The level of interest in the Hundred sale has confounded all targets. The ECB were insistent last week that chair Richard Thompson’s target to raise “£350m from sales” actually represented a minimum 100% valuation of all eight teams, but the process has surpassed both figures in any case, even with two teams – Trent Rockets and Southern Brave – still to be sold.Internal expectations always involved a premium value for the two London-based teams, but the bidding war for a stake in London Spirit saw the franchise’s floor valuation more than double in the space of three hours. The eventual £295 million valuation was eye-watering but reflected the mystique of Lord’s to a group of Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs, most of them with Indian heritage.The Hundred has provided a major cash injection for English cricket, although details still need to be ironed out•Getty ImagesThey are unlikely to make much of a return on their investment in the short term, but the consortium comprises genuine cricket fans with vast personal wealth. Other investors, like Knighthead Capital at Birmingham Phoenix, have wider plans for sport in the region, while Sanjay Govil is growing his cricketing portfolio by adding Welsh Fire to Washington Freedom.Teams which have been centrally run to this point will take control of sponsorship and ticketing from 2026, but the main opportunity for revenue comes through the ECB’s central distribution. That will see each team take around 10% of the tournament’s broadcast rights, and the route to significant profit relies on these growing – particularly overseas, with international media rights currently worth just £2 million.As with most aspects of the Hundred, the sales process has attracted criticism throughout but appears to have achieved its dual aims: pairing host venues with investors that they actively wish to work alongside, and maximising revenue to split across the English game. It was hard to avoid Lalit Modi’s public criticisms, but investors simply chose to dismiss them.And the joint-venture model has not put investors off in the way that some warned, even with most host clubs opting to retain their majority stakes. It will also mean that the ECB retains control of the Hundred itself, having turned down an offer to sell the tournament to a private equity firm on the second day of Richard Thompson’s tenure as chair back in 2022.Will the tournament change much? This year, barely, but expect the 2026 season to look different: new kits, different team names, and – through further salary increases – the best set of players yet. The financial returns of the past week will further stoke interest in adding two new teams – most likely in the north-east and south-west – when contracts are renewed in 2029.Worcestershire can look into a relocation from their flood-prone New Road thanks to the funds raised by the equity sale•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesThere may also be discussions about shifting to T20 at some point in time, though the Hundred’s format has always been a red herring. A 100-ball innings looks and feels fundamentally similar to a 20-over one, with the advantage of shaving off a significant chunk of time across a men’s and women’s double-header – and that format has been a key pillar of the Hundred’s success.Clearly, this is a step into the unknown. How will the ECB interact with and manage a group of eight new investors, whose aims and motivations may often be at odds with the wider interests of English cricket? Will the leadership stand firm when new owners ask for a six-week window, or for guarantees around England players’ availability?But more immediately, the sales process provides cricket with a huge opportunity: the windfall from the past week will ensure the viability of all 18 first-class counties for at least two decades. The eight host venues have the opportunity to build genuine partnerships with investors and their majority stakes are immensely valuable assets.Yorkshire’s decision to cash theirs in means that they can wipe out their substantial debt with plenty left over, though ceding all control risks leaving the most important club in the country as mere landlords for the month of August. Potential pitfalls will doubtless be raised and addressed during the Sun Group’s eight-week exclusivity period, but the ECB will be watching on anxiously.But perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of the sale are the smaller counties. The formula devised last spring sees the first £275 million of revenues split 19 ways (minus 10% allocated to recreational cricket) but the next £150 million split evenly between the 11 non-hosts. It will mean they each receive around £20 million, allowing counties the security to make plans for the long term.County chief executives have rarely had the chance to think beyond their short-term survival in recent years: the twin issues of Covid and inflation have left many clubs struggling, to the extent that at least five of the 18 clubs have received advance payments from the ECB in the past three years. Sussex opted not to use the floodlights at Hove in the County Championship last year citing high costs, while one energy bill was enough to wipe out Somerset’s annual profit.Manchester Originals are one of three teams so far to have attracted IPL owners•Nathan Stirk/ECB via Getty ImagesNow, Kent will be able to invest heavily in Beckenham; Worcestershire can seriously explore a move away from New Road and its regular floods; Gloucestershire can make progress with their purpose-built venue on the outskirts of Bristol; and Leicestershire can fund their planned renovation of Grace Road. It provides clubs the chance to invest in their own sustainability.Every county has pledged to invest seriously in a professional women’s team from this year, and the Hundred windfall means there can be no excuses. Coupled with fresh investment into recreational cricket, it is a platform for the sport to cement itself as the second-biggest in England and Wales, and to attract the best young female athletes to the professional game.The Hundred has been immensely divisive ever since its conception, pushed through by an ECB executive determined to wrest power from the counties, create a tournament it could control, and assets that it could sell. It was unapologetically alienating to many cricket fans and across the first four seasons, the product has barely justified the disruption.But the past week has given English cricket opportunities that only money can buy: to turn the Hundred into a genuinely world-class tournament, to safeguard the future of the county system, and to pour money into the sport’s grassroots. It cannot afford to squander them.
