ECB to spend £470m on County clubs post-IPL teams' investment
14 Feb 2025

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has raised a whopping £975 million by selling stakes in 'The Hundred' teams.

This was done through partnerships with four leading Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises and other investors.

Meanwhile, the money will provide a huge financial relief to English county cricket clubs which have been facing financial difficulties.

Here's more.

IPL franchises and tech giants invest in 'The Hundred'
Stakeholders

The ECB has signed exclusive deals with eight parties, the last stage of the process to bring private expertise and investment into 'The Hundred' teams.

The investors include Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (owners of Mumbai Indians), GMR Group (co-owners of Delhi Capitals), Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG (owners of Lucknow Super Giants), and Sun TV Network (owners of Sunrisers Hyderabad).

Their total investment is nearly £300 million.

Other investors and team ownership details
Ownership

Other investors in 'The Hundred' are tech giants Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (Google), Shantanu Narayan (Adobe), and Satyan Gajwani (co-founder MLC)-backed Cricket Investor Holdings Limited.

After investing a whopping £144.5 million, this consortium now co-owns London Spirits, based at Lord's.

Meanwhile, Knighthead Capital Management will own Birmingham Phoenix (Warwickshire) while Indian-American businessman Sanjay Govil's Washington Freedom bought stakes in Welsh Freedom (Glamorgan).

ECB's plan for the raised funds
Fund allocation

The ECB intends to reinvest a large chunk of the £975 million, £520 million to be precise, into the county, grassroots, and recreational cricket.

Meanwhile, £50 million is earmarked for grassroots and recreational cricket.

The other 18 English county teams will get a share of £470 million with a bigger share for those clubs which don't own a 'Hundred Franchise.'

Stake distribution and future growth of cricket
Investment details

While Reliance Industries has bought a 49% stake in Surrey County's Oval Invincibles, Sun TV Network owns a full 100% stake in Northern Superchargers (Yorkshire).

Goenka owns 70% of Manchester Originals (Lancashire) and GMR Group owns 49% of Southern Brave (Hampshire).

"This will also secure the funding that will go directly to the professional counties and recreational game, underpinning the fabric of our county game," said ECB Chair Richard Thompson.

GMR Group retains ownership of Hundred team Southern Brave
Stake

Indian conglomerate GMR Group have retained their ownership of Hampshire-based Hundred team Southern Brave.

As mentioned, the group now owns a 49% stake in the team.

The move comes after their acquisition of Hampshire County and is expected to lead to full ownership of the team in due course.

With this move, the GMR group has added Brave to a portfolio of teams including Pretoria Capitals in the SA20, Dubai Capitals in the ILT20, and the Seattle Orcas in MLC.