‘Our Premier League moment’: The £550m Hundred sale provokes fear and excitement ...Middle East

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly became the latest billionaire to buy a share in the English summer on Tuesday when he acquired a 49 per cent stake in the Trent Rockets Hundred team.

The American joins three Indian Premier League owners, a Silicon Valley consortium, Knighthead Capital – the owners of Birmingham City football club – and Indian-American businessman Sanjay Govil in investing in the tournament.

With one more team to go – Southern Brave – the amount of money expected to flow into the domestic game as a result of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) selling off stakes in each of the eight Hundred teams is expected to top £550m.

That is beyond even the ECB’s bullish predictions before this whole process began and is expected to see around £50m pumped into the recreational game and each of the 18 first-class counties, plus the MCC, receive a windfall of around £23m each.

The money is likely to be transformational for English cricket, with so many cash-strapped counties able to wipe out their debts and invest the remainder in infrastructure that will give them the chance to chart a sustainable future.

Five genuine reasons England can win the Champions Trophy - no, really

Despite the scepticism – and in some cases outright hatred – so many have towards the Hundred, this could be good for cricket in this country, at least in the short-term.

“The numbers have been staggering,” says Dan Plumley, a sports finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University.

“Despite the criticism aimed at this competition, in financial terms so far, the numbers have to be viewed as a positive for the overall game.

“The trick will still to be make sure the money is well spent by the counties, many of whom are still struggling and there is a still a wider issue of the haves and the have nots in the English game linked to these franchises and Test-match hosting counties.”

As for what these investors have bought, Plumley says: “Future growth and potential. Think of it as another step towards a global franchise market, particularly with the IPL angle where owners have already bought stakes in three of the seven teams sold so far.

“For example, Reliance can now count Oval Invincibles among their six teams, along with Mumbai Indians (IPL and WPL), MI Cape Town (SA20), MI Emirates (International League T20) and MI New York (Major League Cricket). Their multi-club model is cricket’s version of the City Football Group. This synergy will increase the chances of better star talent playing in the Hundred.

“I wouldn’t expect too much to change this season but in 2026 we could see new kits, different team names, and – through further salary increases – better players. Maybe we see expansion in the future as well with other teams being added, especially when broadcast contracts come up for renewal in a few years’ time.”

The Hundred sales

Of the sales, the first 49 per cent share will see 10 per cent go to the recreational game and the rest split between the 18 first-class counties and MCC, the owners of Lord’s.

The remaining 51 per cent share has been gifted from the England & Wales Cricket Board to the eight host counties. If clubs choose to sell off part or all of that share:

So far the sales have generated:

The ECB’s current broadcast deal with Sky Sports that currently includes the Hundred runs to 2028. Worth £220m a year, that figure is likely to go down in future, namely because the Hundred will have its own deal from 2029 onwards. It means from then, the annual payments from the ECB to counties are likely to decrease.

In future, the eight Hundred franchises will share the majority of broadcast and commercial revenues between themselves. It is understood the ECB, who still own the Hundred, will receive just 20 per cent of future revenues from the tournament.

It means each of the 18 counties need to make the most of their windfall, which is expected to be paid to them by the ECB in lump sums over three or five years.

Sean Jarvis, the chief executive of Leicestershire, traditionally one of the poorest of the 18 counties, says: “As a club, we’ve been scrapping hand to mouth really, day to day to make sure we survive.

“But this allows us to become debt free very quickly and then make decisions on how we go forward as a club.

“What we do with the windfall is crucial to our long-term survival. Ironically, the lack of development at Grace Road over the years makes it an ideal opportunity now to look at developing parts of the ground that can generate income away from cricket.”

England have gone backwards under one-dimensional Brendon McCullum

At the other end of the spectrum are Surrey, the wealthiest first-class county whose Hundred team, the Oval Invincibles, welcomed investment last week from Reliance Industries, owned by the Ambanis, the richest family in India.

But Steve Elworthy, Surrey’s chief executive, believes the Hundred sell-off can sustain the county game for the next generation.

“Definitely,” he tells The i Paper. “This is one of the fundamental principles of the deal – to create financially secure and sustainable county businesses.”

As for fears the Hundred will cannibalise the county game, Elworthy believes both can thrive alongside each other in the long-term.

“I definitely do but we also need to look at the structure of the domestic season,” he says.

“We will always look to protect the County Championship as it is the pinnacle of the domestic game.

“But franchise cricket is now part of our summer and we need to adapt to that model.”

What that means for other competitions is clear. The One-Day Cup, played during the Hundred, is now essentially a development competition. The T20 Blast is likely to be shortened too.

Tymal Mills, captain of Sussex’s Blast team who also plays for Southern Brave in the Hundred, believes the current schedule of 14 group games is too long and the windfall the counties will receive will alleviate any loss of income from fewer matches.

“They should condense it for the quality of the product,” Mills tells The i Paper.

“And that can help keep its space and place if you can get it done in one block as opposed to now when it’s spread across the whole summer.”

Mills is understandably happy investment means salaries are certain to rise from next year.

The top-tier Hundred men’s contract in 2024 was £125,000, below even the £142,000 paid to top earners in the United States’ Major League Cricket (MLC), a competition that clashes with the English summer. It’s why the Hundred has struggled to attract the world’s best players.

The Hundred sell-off represents a danger to English cricket

“I’d be baffled if there wasn’t a significant increase at all levels,” Mills says.

“If we’re being honest for some of the top players the money does need to be at a certain level because of British tax rates being quite high.

“If you go to the MLC, for example, that’s run out of Texas that has no state income tax. Those are things maybe people don’t take into consideration. So for some of the guys at the top the money does need to be quite high. I’m sure that’ll benefit in getting names on the pitch.”

Talk of expansion, with the addition of teams in the south west and north east being mooted, remains.

But what about the rest? Jarvis, formerly commercial director at Huddersfield Town football club, believes there must be a way into the Hundred for the 10 counties currently not part of it, potentially by creating a second division with promotion and relegation.

“This our Premier League moment and we’ve got to be extremely careful we don’t create super teams that just have a gulf between them and the rest of us,” Jarvis said.

“We understand the need to establish the competition over a period of time hence the closed-door to getting into that eight. But all the others must have the opportunity to get into that division in future.

“I’ve only got to look at my neighbours down the road at Leicester City. They won the Premier League in 2016. Don’t stop us from having that opportunity. British sport is without question built on promotion and relegation.”

Yet the reason there has been so much resistance to the Hundred, a manufactured product devoid of history, is because it is anathema to British sporting culture.

The money coming in now is welcome but the true price of selling off part of the English summer will only become clear many years down the line.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( ‘Our Premier League moment’: The £550m Hundred sale provokes fear and excitement )

Also on site :

• Kristen Doute Makes Bold Statement About Brittany Cartwright's Heated Reaction to Nia Sanchez
• She escaped an avalanche and became the first woman to summit Everest. Today, few remember her name
• Lisa Rinna, 61, Sizzles in Skimpy Leopard Bikini on the Beach