English cricket has generated around $650 million from the sale of stakes in franchises in The Hundred to big-business investors from India and the United States, including consortiums involving NFL great Tom Brady and Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly.
Auctions held over the past two weeks drew bids that value the eight teams in The Hundred — a format similar to Twenty20 and launched in England only in 2021 — at more than $1.2 billion.
English cricket officials confirmed the huge figures for the first time on Thursday and set out how they want the money spent. The priority? Safeguarding the future of the domestic game that has lurched into financial strife in recent years.
“We’ve reached a seminal moment for cricket in England and Wales,” said Richard Thompson, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The investors who secured stakes in the franchises range from Silicon Valley tech giants including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, to four Indian conglomerates already owning teams in the widely popular Indian Premier League.
Throw in the likes of Knighthead Capital Management, which includes Brady and already owns Birmingham City soccer club, and Cain International, a company co-funded by Boehly, and there's now a heavy dose of expertise in finance, technology and elite sport in a once-quaint sport that has been supercharged by money from around the world.
Lessons from the Stanford scandal
It was 17 years ago when Allen Stanford, a Texan businessman, flew into Lord's — the so-called “home of cricket” in northwest London — aboard a private helicopter filled with fake dollar notes in a publicity stunt for a remarkable deal he reached with the ECB: A five-match T20 series between England and superstars from the Caribbean worth $100 million.
The ECB were in raptures for a supposedly game-changing deal that quickly went wrong when Stanford was charged with — and later convicted of — fraud.
So, has the ECB learnt its lessons after hitting the jackpot again?
“This has probably been done in a different style — a bit more muted,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said on a video call. “We are very confident in the investor group we have got. ... We haven't been complacent.”
The ECB has done “extensive due diligence” and “all the checks to ensure it will be a different outcome" to the Stanford debacle, director of business operations Vikram Banerjee said.
Could games be played abroad?
The ECB seems open to that, yes.
“We'd be foolish not to listen to the amazing set of investors that have got great ideas,” Gould said. “We need to make sure we are a governing body that provides stability but also enables our investors and county clubs to drive forward.”