RPSG Group, the owner of Indian Premier League team Lucknow Super Giants, has won the race to buy into Manchester Originals in a deal valuing the Hundred franchise at £100m.
The conglomerate, chaired by Sanjiv Goenka, has agreed to pay around £50m for the England and Wales Cricket Board’s 49 per cent stake in the Old Trafford-based team.
RPSG becomes the second IPL owner to take a share in a Hundred franchise, after the Ambani family’s Reliance Industries struck a deal for the ECB’s holding in Oval Invincibles.
It also boosts the ECB’s takings from the sale of 49 per cent stakes in the eight teams to around £325m, just shy of the £350m target, with three still to go.
By far the biggest price was agreed by a consortium of US tech investors, whose winning bid for London Spirit last week valued the Lord’s-based team at an eye-watering £295m.
The Silicon Valley consortium is led by former SoftBank executive Nikesh Arora and saw off competition from groups featuring owners from Manchester United and Chelsea.
Another Indian-American entrepreneur Sanjay Govil and his fellow owners of Major League Cricket side Washington Freedom won the auction for Welsh Fire with a £40m bid.
Birmingham City FC’s US owners Knighthead Capital also agreed to pay £40m for the ECB’s stake in Birmingham Phoenix.
The sums are a huge victory for the ECB and chair Richard Thompson, who rejected a £350m for the whole tournament from Bridgepoint in 2022 in favour of running the current sale.
Leeds-based Northern Superchargers, Nottingham’s Trent Rockets and Hampshire-hosted Southern Brave are the three franchises still to be sold.
The SUN Group, which owns Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, was understood to be one of the parties in for Northern Superchargers.
Money raised from the sale of the ECB’s stakes is set to be redistributed among the domestic game. Host counties can then decide whether to sell their 51 per cent stakes or not.