The face of Chelsea’s US ownership group, Todd Boehly, has won the auction to purchase 49 per cent of the Trent Rockets Hundred franchise.
The deal, which would value the Nottingham-based team at £79m, is the penultimate Hundred franchise to be sold, with Southern Brave expected to be auctioned to Hampshire owner the GMR Group on Wednesday.
It means the England and Wales Cricket Board is closing in on a sum of £450m from the sale of their eight 49 per cent stakes.
It would therefore value the eight teams at around £900m in a huge coup for English cricket’s governing body, having turned down a £350m offer to buy the tournament outright from Bridgepoint in 2022.
Big money for Chelsea owner
A group including Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly was interested in London Spirit, which went to a conglomerate of tech investors in a deal that valued the Lord’s team at £295m, but the American has since settled on Trent Rockets.
Cain International, the company Boehly co-founded with fellow Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein, won the auction and will now enter a period of exclusivity with Nottinghamshire, who will keep their 51 per cent majority stake in the Trent Bridge club.
He beat IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders and businessman Amit Jain in the bidding war, in which Boehly paid £40m – around the same initial fee price Chelsea paid Manchester City for England forward Cole Palmer.
IPL influence
And with Southern Brave set to be purchased by Delhi Capitals, it means the ECB will keep to its alleged target of having four of the eight franchises purchased by Indian Premier League team owners.
Mumbai Indians owner the Ambani family purchased 49 per cent of Oval Invincibles, while Sunrisers Hyderabad’s owners snapped up 100 per cent of Northern Superchargers and Lucknow Super Giants took 70 per cent of Manchester Originals.
Elsewhere, Knighthead Capital, which owns League One football club Birmingham City, has purchased 49 per cent of Edgbaston-based Birmingham Phoenix while the owners of Major League Cricket side Washington Freedom paid £40m for a same sized stake in Welsh Fire.