Manchester Originals have become the second The Hundred franchise to come under the control of an Indian Premier League team after Lancashire agree a deal with RPSG Group-owned Lucknow Super Giants.
RPSG put a total value of £116 million ($144m) on the Originals in Monday’s virtual auction. What has been different with this sale though was that unlike earlier The Hundred team sales that have been closed, a 70% share in the Originals is being offloaded to RPSG, meaning Lancashire have become the first host to hand over a controlling stake (retaining 30%).
Per BBC, in investing in the Originals, RPSG beat off bids connected to IPL sides Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Lancashire chief executive Daniel Gidney had previously been open about the county’s desire to partner with an IPL team.
A Lancashire statement said: “We have been very focused on securing a great partner – ideally from the IPL – and RPSG has been our preferred bidder for some time.
“We are delighted by the outcome and look forward to working together to create an exciting future. Together, we have a shared ambition to create a very special cricket team for the people of Manchester and the wider North West region.”
For the record, the RPSG Group also owns Durban Super Giants in SA20 – South Africa’s premier T20 cricket league.
An interesting factoid around the five teams that have thus far been sold is that four of them have Indian / Indian origin links.
Last week, Surrey negotiated a £60m price with Reliance-owned Mumbai Indians for a 49% stake in Oval Invincibles.
Then there was the “big sale” of a 49% stake in Lord’s-based London Spirit to a consortium of Silicon Valley tech billionaires. Cricket Investor Holdings Limited, led by US cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks chairman and chief executive Nikesh Arora and Satyan Gajwani, vice chairman of Times Internet Ltd, for £145 million, which valued Spirit at around £300m.
Other than Arora and Gajwani, the 11-strong consortium includes Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, and Egon Durban, co-CEO of Silver Lake Management LLC being the prominent names.
Pichai’s interest in cricket is well-known, reflecting a broader trend among Indian-origin tech leaders supporting the sport internationally.
Glamorgan’s sale of 49% stake in Welsh Fire to IT entrepreneur Sanjay Govil for £40m completes the “Indian connection” in The Hundred (of course that could go up as there are still three teams to be sold.
As for the fifth sale that has gone through, Warwickshire have agreed a 49% sale of Birmingham Phoenix to Knighthead Capital, owners of Football League One side Birmingham City F.C.
All successful bidders now enter an eight-week period of exclusivity in order to complete the sales.
