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A landmark moment for English cricket will move a step closer on Thursday as the final stage of the sale of teams in The Hundred begins.
With fixtures for the 2025 season announced on Wednesday, a day later Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix will become the first two of the eight franchises matched to preferred investors.
The other six teams will follow suit in the coming days, with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) set to announce the eight successful investors next week.
Owners of Premier League football clubs and Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, along with figures from technology and entertainment, are among those vying for a stake.
Preferred bidders will then have an eight-week exclusivity period in which to finalise a deal with a franchise, meaning the sale process will officially be completed in the late spring.
The 2025 season begins with a London derby, with London Spirit hosting Oval Invincibles at Lord’s on 5 August. The final of the fifth staging of the competition will take place on the same ground on 31 August.
What is happening?
The ECB confirmed its intention to sell stakes in the eight Hundred teams last May. Raine Group – the bank that oversaw the sales of football clubs Manchester United and Chelsea – has been in charge of the process.
Although the teams are being sold, the ECB will retain ownership of the competition itself, having rejected a bid for the tournament from Bridgepoint Capital in 2022.
The sales, expected to generate hundreds of millions of pounds, are designed to safeguard the financial future of an English game badly in need of investment.
ECB director of business operations Vikram Banerjee told BBC Sport: “It’s a really exciting moment. It’s an opportunity for us to learn from other sports that have done it, and done it really well. I do think this will help the whole game grow at quite a rate.”
Still, The Hundred is a highly divisive presence in English cricket, with some supporters believing it detracts from other, more traditional, forms of the game.
In order to make space for The Hundred, there is almost no international cricket in August of this year.
Some are concerned that inviting outside investment is tantamount to a ‘privatisation’ of part of the summer and will lead to The Hundred taking up more room in the schedule.
The ECB is adamant it will retain control of the competition and the earliest any expansion could come is at the end of the current broadcast deal with Sky in 2028.
Getty ImagesWhat is being sold and where will the money go?
The hosts of the eight teams have been given a 51% stake in their franchise, which they can sell or keep, with the ECB then selling the remaining 49%.
The eight hosts are Lord’s (Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)/London Spirit), The Oval (Surrey/Oval Invincibles), Southampton (Hampshire/Southern Brave), Cardiff (Glamorgan/Welsh Fire), Trent Bridge (Nottinghamshire/Trent Rockets), Edgbaston (Warwickshire/Birmingham Phoenix), Old Trafford (Lancashire/Manchester Originals) and Headingley (Yorkshire/Northern Superchargers).
Of the 51% the hosts have been given, they can keep all, or choose to sell all or part of their stake. Some, like Surrey and Warwickshire, want to keep their entire stake, while others – such as Lancashire – are open to selling some of it and Yorkshire may opt to sell all of theirs.
From the total money raised, 10% will go straight to the recreational game. Proceeds from the 49% sales will be divided between the 18 first-class counties and the MCC. If a host decides to sell part or all of its stake, it will hand over 10% of what it receives to be divided between the 18 counties and MCC.
Who is buying?
The ECB said it had initial interest from more than 100 potential buyers, a number that has gradually been whittled down to around 15 bidders.
Between two and four bidders have been shortlisted for each franchise. Some investors are on the shortlist for more than one franchise, so if they miss out on their first choice, they may be successful elsewhere.
Links to the IPL are inevitable, given the investment already made in leagues across the world. The co-owners of Delhi Capitals finalised a takeover of county club Hampshire in September and, as a result, are on course to secure sole ownership of Southern Brave.
Lancashire have been open about their desire to partner Manchester Originals alongside an IPL team, with the owners of the Mumbai Indians and the Lucknow Super Giants thought to be in the running, alongside US investors.
However, the ECB has been keen to secure investment from a range of sources and some Hundred franchises are keen to avoid an IPL link, primarily to guard against interference in cricketing matters.
Oval Invincibles, for example, could be partnered with a consortium of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, or the private investment firm CVC, which is thought to have made it through to the final round of the auction.
Todd Boehly, a shareholder in Chelsea, and members of the Glazer family, co-owners of Manchester United, are reportedly among those interested in acquiring a stake in London Spirit.
“We are looking to create the blend of the best eight partners that can help the tournament grow and also use this process to raise funds that will create financially sustainable gain for a generation to come,” said Banerjee.
“We’ve got a real variety in our shortlist. It’s a really exciting moment. I do think this will help the whole game grow at quite a rate.”
There has been some controversy, however. In September, IPL founder Lalit Modi leaked financial projections linked to the sale on social media, including predictions about future deals for TV rights which he called “disconnected from reality… dangerously overambitious and unsustainable”.
On Tuesday, the ECB responded to a report claiming that some prospective investors were frustrated with the sales process, defending it as “thorough and rigorous” in a statement.
The governing body also insisted that host venues had decided on shortlists of potential partners “based on who they would like to work with, not making purely financial decisions”.
What will change?
One key aim for the ECB is to attract more of the top men’s players to The Hundred, which competes against leagues in the US and Caribbean in a crowded part of the calendar. Investment should aid this goal by making possible the offer of higher salaries.
Though pay for the top men’s players is increasing from £125,000 to £200,000 in 2025, the sales will be completed too late for any other significant changes to be implemented this year.
The ECB sees the upcoming season as “transitional”, with more tangible changes in 2026. These could include team names, colours and branding being altered.
In 2025, the London derby means the defending champions in the men’s and women’s competitions, the Invincibles and Spirit respectively, are in action on the opening day.
As in previous years, the Eliminator contest between the teams that finish second and third in the table will take place the day before the final at The Oval with no reserve day. The final does have the provision of a reserve day.
