This story was first published on Feb. 13, 2025. It was updated on Feb. 25, 2025 to correct that Tom Brady was not involved in Knighthead Capital Management's purchase of a stake in an English cricket franchise.
English cricket has generated around $650 million from the sale of stakes in franchises in The Hundred to big-business investors from India and the United States.
Auctions held over the past two weeks drew bids that value the eight teams in The Hundred — a format similar to Twenty20 and launched in England only in 2021 — at more than $1.2 billion.
English cricket officials confirmed the huge figures for the first time on Thursday and set out how they want the money spent. The priority? Safeguarding the future of the domestic game that has lurched into financial strife in recent years.
“We’ve reached a seminal moment for cricket in England and Wales,” said Richard Thompson, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The investors who secured stakes in the franchises range from Silicon Valley tech giants including Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, to four Indian conglomerates already owning teams in the widely popular Indian Premier League.
Throw in the likes of Knighthead Capital Management, which already owns Birmingham City soccer club, and Cain International, a company co-funded by Chelsea part-owner Todd Boehly, and there's now a heavy dose of expertise in finance, technology and elite sport in a once-quaint sport that has been supercharged by money from around the world. NFL great Tom Brady has made other sports investments in partnership with Knighthead but was not part of the acquisition of a stake in the Birmingham Phoenix cricket franchise, Peter McManus, a representative for Knighthead, said.
Lessons from the Stanford scandal
It was 17 years ago when Allen Stanford, a Texan businessman, flew into Lord's — the so-called “home of cricket” in northwest London — aboard a private helicopter filled with fake dollar notes in a publicity stunt for a remarkable deal he reached with the ECB: A five-match T20 series between England and superstars from the Caribbean worth $100 million.
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The ECB were in raptures for a supposedly game-changing deal that quickly went wrong when Stanford was charged with — and later convicted of — fraud.
So, has the ECB learnt its lessons after hitting the jackpot again?
“This has probably been done in a different style — a bit more muted,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said on a video call. “We are very confident in the investor group we have got. ... We haven't been complacent.”
The ECB has done “extensive due diligence” and “all the checks to ensure it will be a different outcome" to the Stanford debacle, director of business operations Vikram Banerjee said.
Could games be played abroad?
The ECB seems open to that, yes.
“We'd be foolish not to listen to the amazing set of investors that have got great ideas,” Gould said. “We need to make sure we are a governing body that provides stability but also enables our investors and county clubs to drive forward.”
Gould made reference to the NFL taking games overseas and also the idea — floated around in 2008 but never adopted — of a 39th round of English Premier League games played abroad.
Are foreign investors controlling English cricket?
No, the ECB insists.
The governing body said it still owns The Hundred as a competition and felt it was important the “structure of the game is retained and owned by the ECB and our members (the counties).” That means the schedule, the formats and the governance of English cricket.
Expect, however, the new investors to make changes to their franchises when it comes to team names, colors and branding in The Hundred from 2026.
Changing the times when matches are played — to potentially suit Indian audiences, for example — is “not on the agenda,” Gould said, because securing strong attendances inside the stadiums is a priority.
Banerjee said there was no intention to turn the Hundred — a format where each team receives a maximum of 100 balls — into a T20 competition but could envisage the competition having a second tier if there is enough growth.
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The ECB said the new investors have a “lock-in period” of five years before they can sell their shares to other parties.
So, where will all the money go?
The ECB said the deals, once finalized after an exclusivity period, will underpin “long-term financial sustainability” in the domestic game in England.
Proceeds from the sales will be split 19 ways — between the 18 long-established county teams in the English and Welsh domestic game as well as the Marylebone Cricket Club, which owns Lord’s and is regarded as the guardian of the laws of the game. The grassroots game is in line to receive around 50 million pounds ($62 million), the ECB said.
“Our three overarching principles as we look at what we want this investment to deliver should be strategic, ambitious and leaving a legacy,” Thompson said in an open letter. “We may not get this chance again for at least a generation, and cannot afford to waste this golden opportunity.”
Thompson spoke of the money heading to “three core investment areas”: Building reserves, revenue generation or debt reduction.