THE HUNDRED: After Ambanis splash £60 million on 49% stake in Oval team, consortium with Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella pick Lord’s for £ 144 million | Cricket News

After their foray into T20 leagues like Caribbean Premier League, SA20 and ILT20, The Hundred is the latest franchise based tournament that has interested high-profile owners of the IPL franchises.As bidding for the eight teams got underway, Mumbai Indians’ owners Reliance Industries Limited looked set to buy 49% stake in The Oval Invincibles for a price of nearly £ 60 million.
However, the biggest bid came from Silicon Valley on Friday, where a consortium that involves Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella bought London Spirit, which has the Lord’s stadium as its home for £ 144 million.
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What is The Hundred?
The Hundred is a format introduced the England and Wales Cricket Board which sees each team get 100 balls to play. With its T20 competition not making headlines, the ECB has been promoting the Hundred as its flagship event since it was introduced in 2021. However, it hasn’t actually taken off as much as they would’ve liked in terms of a financially viable product with other tournaments like SA20 and ILT20 already grabbing headlines.
So in 2024, the ECB took the decision to allow equity sale of teams in the hope that Indian owners will pump their money into the tournament.
What is equity sale?
The ECB had a target of £ 350 million through the sales process – a figure it arrived at after a London based firm Bridgepoint Group placed a £ 400 million bid to own 75% stake in the tournament. With ECB wanting to retain control, it decided to sell its 49% stake in each of the 8 teams, while 51% was given to the eight hosting counties which they can hold or sell. And any money raised from the sale of 49% will be dributed between County teams, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for grassroots programmes.
Line up of IPL owners
Although Lalit Modi, the brain behind IPL, raised doubts over ECB’s valuation, selling The Oval Invincibles to Reliance and Birmingham Phoenix to Knighthead Capital, owners of Birmingham City, the ECB has already raised 244m GBP with five more to come.Story continues below this ad
Although Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings had also shown interest, they have decided not to invest in The Hundred. However, Sanjeev Goenka, who owns the Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers Hyderabad owned SunTv Network, and Delhi Capitals, are showing interest in owning a stake. Even CVC Capital which runs Gujarat Titans placed a bid for The Oval Invincibles but was beaten to it the Ambanis.
Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella have a new home at Lord’s
A consortium involving Silicon Valley executives Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora and co-CEO of Silver Lake Management LLC, Egon Durban, showed interest to buy The Oval Invincibles.
And after missing out on Thursday, they went all out for London Spirit fending off interest from LSG owner Sanjeev Goenka, Manchester United co-chairman Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital and Cain International, which was led Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein and backed the club’s joint-owner Todd Boehly. Eventually it came down to two bidders – Goenka vs Silicon Valley Group – before the latter walked away as winners.
How is English cricket reacting?
Of course, there are concerns being raised about the involvement of private players, more notably Indians. Prime example was when GMR Group, that co-owns Delhi Capitals bought 53% stake in Hampshire County for £ 120 million, and showed interest to buy Southern Brave which plays its matches at Southampton. With IPL owners already making inroads in English cricket, there are concerns how far their reach will go. While Surrey, Warwickshire and Glamorgan want to keep 51% of their stake, others are open to sell part of it. So a similar arrangement like the one exing between Hampshire and GMR is expected in the future, which means these owners will also have a say in the operations of the County teams.
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Will Indian players be part of The Hundred?
Although the tournament takes place in the months of July-August which is usually an off-season in India, the BCCI won’t allow any of its players to feature in the tournament. The ECB has been having discussions with the BCCI over the participation of Indian players, but to protect brand IPL, the Indian board doesn’t allow its players to feature in any other leagues. With IPL owners having their imprint all over the world, how long can BCCI res this offers only time will tell. making their presence in English cricket, all eyes are on what Cricket Australia will do next as its Big Bash League will further lose traction.