English county cricket clubs facing hardships will get financial boost after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), with investments from four well-known IPL franchises, has been able to raise GBP 975 million by selling stakes in eight teams in their flagship event ‘The Hundred’. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has entered into exclusivity agreements with eight parties in the final stage of the process to secure private expertise and investment into The Hundred’s teams. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (owners of Mumbai Indians), the GMR Group (co-owners of Delhi Capitals), Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG (owners of Lucknow Super Giants) and Sun TV Network (owners of Sunrisers Hyderabad) have all bought stakes in four of the eight franchises.
And their cumulative investments would be to the tune of nearly GBP 300 million, which is nearly 30 per cent of the valuation raised through sell of stakes.
Other investors include Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (Google), Shantanu Narayan (Adobe) and Satyan Gajwani (co-founder MLC)-backed Cricket Investor Holdings Limited which now co-owns London Spirits housed at the Lord’s. The consortium shelled the maximum amount of GBP 144.5 million to buy stakes.
Knighthead Capital Management will own Birmingham Phoenix (Warwickshire), Indian-American businessman Sanjay Govil’s Washington Freedom has bought stakes in Welsh Freedom (Glamorgan) while EPL giants Chelsea’s owner Todd Boehly’s company Cain International, along with Ares Management Credit, has bought 49 per cent in Trent Rockets (Nottinghamshire). Out of GBP 975 million, the ECB plans to put back a whopping GBP 520 million pounds back for the development of county, grassroots and recreational cricket. While GBP 50 million is earmarked for grassroots and recreational cricket, the 18 English county teams will get a share of GBP 470 million with larger pie allocated for those clubs that don’t own a ‘Hundred Franchise’.
‘The Hundred’ is a format where each team plays 100 ball per innings with a bowler allowed to bowl 10 deliveries at one go and a Powerplay of 25 deliveries per innings.
Reliance bought 49 per cent stakes in Surrey County’s Oval Invincibles, while Sun TV has full 100 per cent stakes in Northern Superchargers (Yorkshire) while Goenka has 70 per cent share in Manchester Originals (Lancashire). GMR has 49 per cent share in Southern Brave (Hampshire).
Reliance paid GBP 60 million pounds to buy their stakes while Sun TV has shelled out entire valuation of GBP 100 million. RPSG bought their stakes for a shade above GBP 80 million.
GMR, which has already bought Hampshire County team, has invested GBP 48 million in Southern Braves. “The eight teams have been valued at a total of just over £975m, with more than £520m set to be injected into the professional and recreational game in England and Wales from proceeds of stakes sold,” the ECB stated in a release.
“The recreational and grassroots game is in line to receive around £50m. Proceeds for the professional game will be split according to a formula agreed with the professional counties and MCC, with counties which don’t host a Hundred team getting a bigger share from sale of the ECB’s 49% stake in each team,” it further stated.
The English county teams have been in financial distress for a while now. A case in point is Hampshire being owned by GMR and Yorkshire selling its full 100 per cent “franchise stakes” to Sun TV.
“This will also secure the funding that will go directly to the professional counties and recreational game, underpinning the fabric of our county game and helping futureproof cricket’s growth in England and Wales for generations to come,” ECB Chair Richard Thompson was quoted as saying.
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