English cricket has completed arguably its greatest transformation in living memory after Southern Brave became the eighth and final Hundred franchise to be bought in a landmark sale that sees the totaliser touching £1bn.
Hampshire’s owners GMR Group – co-owners of Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League – secured the 49% stake in Southern Brave on Wednesday, as was widely expected. It means the county, set to be gifted 51% of the team, will take full control of Southern Brave once the final details are ironed out.
The deal has seen GMR Group pay around £48m for the stake in Southern Brave, placing the team’s overall valuation at £98m. The combined value of the eight teams after the sale process sits at around £974m – a figure which is set to be confirmed by the England and Wales Cricket Board on Thursdayl.
Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, is also due to discuss the sale publicly, including an update on how proceeds from the ECB’s 49% will be distributed. The recreational game is due to receive 10%, with the remainder split by the 18 first-class counties and Marylebone Cricket Club.
While fees tipped to run into seven figures due to The Raine Group that ran the sales process, as well as Deloitte, the upshot will be a huge cash injection for the domestic game worth upwards of £400m. Gould is also expected to outline the “guard rails” in place to ensure that counties spend the money wisely.
With Rod Bransgrove’s majority stake in Hampshire sold to GMR Group last year – a deal that will see GMR eventually assume full ownership within two years – the sale of the ECB’s 49% stake in Southern Brave was unique among the eight Hundred teams. The governing body has insisted that measures were in place to ensure a fair market price and prevent potential ‘sandbagging’.
Assuming all sales go through to completion after a six-week exclusivity period for negotiations, the arrangement for Southern Brave also means four of the eight Hundred franchises now have investment from IPL owners. It follows deals for Northern Superchargers (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Manchester Originals (Lucknow Super Giants) and Oval Invincibles (Mumbai Indians).
Richard Thompson, the ECB chair, had previously stated the governing body did not want the Hundred sale to become “an IPL takeover” and should be satisfied with the outcome, with Birmingham Phoenix (Knighthead Capital), Welsh Fire (Tech entrepreneur Sanjay Govil), London Spirit (Silicon Valley consortium) and Trent Rockets (Cain International/Ares) all attracting investment from elsewhere.
Oval Invincibles
Valuation £123m. Host club Surrey. Investor Reliance Industries, owners of Mumbai Indians, bought 49% for £60m.
Birmingham Phoenix
Valuation £81m. Host club Warwickshire. Investor Knighthead Capital, owners of Birmingham City FC, bought 49% for £40m.
London Spirit
Valuation £295m. Host club MCC. Investor Cricket Investor Holdings Limited, a Silicon Valley consortium, bought 49% for £144m.
Welsh Fire
Valuation £81m. Host club Glamorgan. Investor IT entrepreneur Sanjay Govil, owner of Washington Freedom in Major League Cricket, bought 49% for £40m.
Manchester Originals
Valuation £116m. Host club Lancashire. Investor RPSG Group, owners of Lucknow Super Giants, bought 70% for £81m.
Northern Superchargers
Valuation £100m. Host club Yorkshire. Investor Sun Group, owners of Sunrisers Hyderabad, bought 100%.
Trent Rockets
Valuation £80m. Host club Nottinghamshire. Investor Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly’s Cain International bought 49% for £39m.
Southern Brave
Valuation £98m. Host club Hampshire. Investor GMR Group, Hampshire majority shareholders and co-owners of Delhi Capitals, bought the ECB's 49% stake for £48m.
While India’s richest family, the Ambanis, have finally entered English cricket after buying 49% of Oval Invincibles for £60m, the most eye-watering figure was the £144m paid by Cricket Holdings Limited – a consortium of Silicon Valley investors – for the equivalent stake in Lord’s-based London Spirit.
Nikesh Arora, who heads up the consortium, told the BBC: “I think it was more than anyone expected. We expected some amount of premium for Lord’s because Lord’s is the prized asset. If you’re going to get involved in something, go after the best. From our perspective this is the best opportunity.
“I think the value of these things is going to be higher in 10 years than it is today.”
While this year is likely to see the Hundred largely unchanged, new team names and colours could be introduced from 2026 onwards. The future of the 100-ball format – tipped to remain under the current broadcast deal that runs until 2028 – is another topic for discussion, with a number of investors understood to prefer it to become a Twenty20 in line with other tournaments overseas.
