The fourth edition of the Hundred competition is set to kick off on Tuesday, July 23 in London, however, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has completely indulged itself in thinking about the future of the competition with a potentially huge investment set to be pumped through private sources. ECB is determined to keep control of all eight franchises while wanting to sell a 49 per cent stake in each of them.
IPL franchises, the Glazers of Manchester United and Wrexham Group co-owned by Ryan Reynolds have come forth as potential investors. As per a Cricbuzz report, the ECB has spoken to all the IPL owners with respect to potential investment in the teams while promising a tournament very similar to the rest of the franchise leagues in the world.
"We're about to enter a commercial negotiation, but at a principal level, this will run very similar to other franchise leagues around the world. We have spoken about the IPL owners. I've met all of them and taken feedback from them on specific things about what's important," Vikram Banerjee, director of business operations of the ECB was quoted as saying in the report
"We'll then look to start the process in earnest in kind of early mid-September. So (we are) kind of building off that momentum that hopefully is created from the tournament with the name that the 2025 season becomes the first season with a different look. We obviously can't say just yet, but the process will probably run into early next year, with the idea being that at least broadly, who's coming into what team by the time the draft comes around, by the time the ticket on sale comes around in February- March," Banerjee added.
The Telegraph UK reported that Reynolds' Wrexham Group, which has transformed the football club, is interested in investing in Wales-based Welsh Fire, the franchise ranked the lowest in terms of value bids out of the eight. The Glazers of Manchester United group has offered a potential investment in one of the franchises.
Similarly, Knighthead Capital, the owners of Birmingham City Football Club, are also interested in investing the Phoenix franchise based in the city and will also be attending the tournament opener on Tuesday, July 23 at the Oval. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, who dabbled into cricket-team ownership stuff with the Seattle Orcas in the Major League Cricket, too have been in talks with the ECB regarding stakes in one of the teams.
