Yorkshire have become the first host county to sell their entire stake in their Hundred franchise, with Sunrisers Hyderabad spending £100 million to buy all of Northern Superchargers.
Northern Superchargers became the sixth of the eight Hundred franchises to be sold as part of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s auction process.
The ECB is selling 49 per cent of each team, then gifting 51 per cent to the host county, in this case Yorkshire. They have chosen to sell that entire stake, meaning Sunrisers will take complete control of the whole franchise with Yorkshire cashing in now rather than gambling on waiting to see if their stake gathers value in the future.
Yorkshire have opted to sell their stake in order to pay off their heavy debts which run to around £20 million, the vast majority to the Colin Graves Family Trust.
While the 49 per cent stake is spread through the game, Yorkshire keep 80 per cent of their 51 per cent stake. The other 20 per cent is split between the recreational game (10 per cent) and the other 17 first-class counties and MCC (10 per cent).
Sunrisers are the third IPL franchise to invest in a Hundred team, following the owners of the Mumbai Indians’ (the Ambani family) buying 49 per cent of Oval Invincibles and Lucknow Super Giants (owned by Sanjiv Goenka) buying around 70 per cent of Manchester Originals. Sunrisers are owned by Kalanithi Maran, a media tycoon of the Sun Group. They also have a team in South Africa’s SA20, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, based in Port Elizabeth.
Sunrisers are thought to have beaten a group involving Rajasthan Royals’ Manoj Badale, and Amit Jain, an American-Indian businessman understood to be working with another IPL team, Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The remaining two franchises to be sold are Trent Rockets, who are attracting interest from Kolkata Knight Riders, and Southern Brave, whose host county Hampshire are already owned by GMR, the Indian business that part-owns the IPL team Delhi Capitals.
The total value of the six Hundred franchises sold so far is approaching £800 million, meaning around £400 million is set to be spread through the game.
