.
Hundred franchises sold in full or in part, with the financial windfall to be spread throughout the domestic and recreational game and hopefully prop it up for years to come.
London Spirit were valued at just shy of £300m as a consortium of US-based tech billionaires purchased 49 per cent of the Lord’s-based team for £145m.
Meanwhile, Yorkshire’s entire stake in the Northern Superchargers was bought by Sun Group – who own IPL outfit Sunrisers Hyderabad – for circa £100m, meaning the Headingley county could pay off the £15m debt they owe the Graves family in one go.
Six Hundred teams have had cash injections so far – Spirit, Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Manchester Originals, Welsh Fire and Birmingham Phoenix – with Trent Rockets and Southern Brave to follow over the coming days.
The total valuation so far has approached £800m, money that will not only help the host counties of Hundred sides, such as Lancashire, Surrey and Glamorgan, but also the rest.
Proceeds from the 49 per cent of teams sold by the ECB will be divided between the 18 first-class counties and the MCC, while if a host county sells all or part of their 51 per cent, 10 per cent of that money will also go to the counties and MCC.
So, is everything looking rosy for English cricket?
Michael Atherton told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast: “These are incredible, irrational sums and is hard to envisage how [these buyers and investors] will get that back in the near term – and that is the worry really.
“In order to get it back they may have to think about expanding The Hundred, playing more games, raising ticket prices. There is …
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