1. The numbers
As of Wednesday morning UK time, the results of five of the eight auctions has been reported. The ECB’s 49% stake in Birmingham Panthers was sold for £40 million to Birmingham City FC owners Knighthead Capital; the same stake in Oval Invincibles went to the IPL’s Mumbai Indians for £60 million. 49% of Welsh Fire went for £40 million, while the owners of the IPL’s Lucknow Super Giants put a total value of £116 million on Manchester Originals, buying the ECB 49% stake and an additional 21% of the stake owned by Lancashire County Cricket Club, for a controlling 70% total share. The winning bidders are now entering an eight-week period of exclusivity to close the deals.
2. The London Spirit valuation
The sale of 49% of London Spirit, based at MCC-owned Lord’s, appears to have exceeded all expectations, not least those of the ECB. After a highly competitive auction, the stake in the franchise eventually went to a group of tech entrepreneurs led by Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and including Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The sale price: £145 million.
3. The dealmakers
The ECB is waiting until the completion of all auctions to comment, but the values so far provide a ringing endorsement for the model and the process, led at the ECB by Director of Strategy and Corporate Development Vikram Banerjee. The Raine Group and Deloitte have both been deeply embedded in the process, carefully sourcing and stoking potential bidders.
4. The process
As well as the competition it generates, the staggered auction process, which will continue into next week, has certainly helped to stoke media interest and generated its fair share of headlines, as well-sourced reporters, notably BBC Sport’s Dan Roan and Sky News’ Mark Kleinman, unearthed details of the various winners and losers, as well as the key financial information.
5. The US interest
Although the sale of the 49% stake in Welsh Fire, the franchise linked to county side Glamorgan, yielded the lowest price so far at £40 million, its new shareholder is arguably the most revealing about the direction of travel in cricket. Indian-American IT entrepreneur Sanjay Govil has invested, adding Welsh Fire to his Major League Cricket franchise, Washington Freedom. The American influence was felt elsewhere in a process where The Raine Group clearly opened its black book of contacts from the football world - it’s reported that the Glazer family were interested in bidding for Manchester Originals and a group involving Chelsea Co-Owner Todd Boehly was in the frame for London Spirit.
6. The counties
The eye-watering numbers may prompt a number of the county championship clubs, who each hold a 51% stake in their Hundred franchise, to doubt their decision not to sell. Only Lancashire, led by the astute chair-executive duo of Andy Anson and Daniel Gidney, elected to give up a proportion of their shareholding, selling 21% and control of the Manchester Originals to the Lucknow Super Giants.
7. The outlier
It’s widely expected that JSW, the owners of IPL’s Delhi Capitals, will ultimately acquire the ECB-held 49% stake in the Southern Brave franchise. They already have control of Hampshire, courtesy of a historic deal announced last year – the first county side to move into foreign hands – and therefore already own the 51% controlling share of the Southern Brave (and the club’s Utilita Bowl ground).
8. The assets
The bids are all the more remarkable given what’s not included: no real estate, no access to the established County Championship teams; Manchester Originals-apart, no controlling stake. Such is the appetite for short-form cricket, perhaps the only opportunity to acquire stakes in English team brands was too good to turn down, particularly for those groups building out a portfolio of cricket team assets around the world.
9. The format
The Hundred still stands out among a sea of existing T20 competitions around the world – it’s widely recognised as imperfect, is far from universally loved and has not been replicated elsewhere. Even without controlling stakes, could there be a move to adapt from the inside the format so that it ultimately falls in line with the IPL, Major League Cricket and others?
10. The bigger picture
In a week when ICC CEO Geoff Allardice announced he was standing down, cricket’s bigger picture is telling. Inclusion in the Olympics from 2028 is certainly stirring fresh interest and if India will undoubtedly continue as the sport’s economic - and governance – powerhouse, the rise of US investment is the story of this auction process thus far. Big bets are being made and investors from both countries have seen something in The Hundred franchises that their British counterparts have not.
