The Hundred auction concluded with the long-anticipated sale of 49 per cent of Southern Brave to Hampshire County Cricket Club’s Indian Premier League (IPL) owner GMR for almost £50 million, taking the total value of the eight franchises past £960 million and raising close to £500 million for the game.
GMR, the co-owner of IPL team Delhi Capitals – as well as other subsidiary franchises around the world – completed a landmark deal to buy Hampshire last year from long-time owner Rod Bransgrove. Hampshire are one of only three counties not owned by their members, and became the first of the 18 first-class counties to come under overseas ownership.
That made GMR the strong favourite to pick up the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) 49 per cent of Southern Brave, and it won the auction with a bid that valued the franchise at £98 million. It is understood that GMR placed the only bid at the auction, but multiple other parties were at the table and interested.
As GMR was both host county and an interested investor, the ECB found itself in a tricky position that was unique among the eight sales.
The deal takes the total valuation of all eight teams past £960 million, meaning the total to be shared across the game – at 49 per cent – will be close to £500 million.
Delhi Capitals are the fourth IPL franchise to invest in a Hundred team and, after Sunrisers Hyderabad at Northern Superchargers, the second to take full control. The Mumbai Indians owners, the Ambani family, have a 49 per cent minority stake in Oval Invincibles, partnering Surrey, and Lucknow Super Giants have a 70 per cent controlling stake in Manchester Originals, partnering Lancashire.
This achieves the ECB’s stated desire not to have an “IPL takeover” of the tournament. Two Indian-American groups have bought stakes in teams, with Sanjay Govil investing in Welsh Fire and a Silicon Valley tech consortium investing in Lord’s-based London Spirit.
The other two investors are Americans who own English football teams, with the Tom Brady-backed Knighthead Capital adding Birmingham Phoenix to their ownership of Birmingham City FC. Chelsea co-chairman Todd Boehly’s Cain International worked on a successful 49 per cent bid for Trent Rockets with Ares Management.
