The founder of franchise cricket’s iconic Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament has called the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) “disconnected from reality” in terms of their valuation of the Hundred domestic short-form tournament.
The ECB is currently conducting a process through which it is aiming to sell off stakes in each of the eight city-based franchises by the start of next season, and IPL founder Lalit Modi posted on a thread on social media platform X of what he has claimed is the prospectus being sent out to interested parties by the ECB’s financial advisors (Raine Group and Deloitte).
Modi has also said the ECB’s calculations around how much each franchise would be worth to private investment are “dangerously overambitious and unsustainable.”
This comes after Modi was himself reported as being an interested party in the competition - reportedly in buying the whole event - earlier this year. However, the ECB - which has been keen to point out his previous interest in reacting to these comments - did not go further with his proposition at that time.
The IPL founder - who was banned for life by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2013 after (disputed) charges of misconduct and financial irregularities - has said that in terms of profitability, the Hundred’s eight franchises come off around the same or potentially worse in comparison to those from the Caribbean Premier League, another short-format competition.
Indeed, he has claimed the eight teams will only be worth “a mere £5 million [$6.7 million] to £25 million in the best-case scenario.”
Modi - who the ECB feels could well be publicly commenting to drive the price down on behalf of interested IPL owners - has suggested the London Spirit will fetch around £25 million at the top end of that spectrum.
In addition, he has said that the figures around international broadcast rights attributed to the ECB “make little sense, given the global competition from other cricket leagues like the IPL.”
Modi has posted images that suggest the ECB feels the Hundred will be generating international media rights revenue of close to £35 million by 2032 - currently, those same rights are worth £2.1 million.
The Telegraph publication has claimed to have seen these same figures, which come from - it has reported - a document entitled Project Gemini Information Memorandum.
The domestic rights, meanwhile, are predicted to rise from £54.3 million under the terms of the current deal (which ends in 2028) to £85 million under the next tie-up in 2029.
For sponsorship, meanwhile, valuations are predicted to grow from £5.7 million now to £32.6 million in 2032. Modi has said these numbers “seem more like wishful thinking than a realistic forecast.”
His thread on X has been accompanied by images of what he claims is the valuation for all eight teams, and a central financial document based on the whole competition and its values.
The formal sales process for the Hundred franchises began in early September, with the ECB originally planning to have all deals ratified by the start of the 2025 English cricket season (next April).
The ECB is giving 51% of each team to the host venues at which they play, meaning it is only looking to sell off the other 49% at this time to private investment.
Last year, English cricket’s governing body turned down a bid of £400 million for 75% of the whole tournament from the Bridgepoint Group.
The ECB is now, Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) understands, looking to bring in offers of investment from all corners of the sporting world, including from groups involved in the IPL and from those who own teams in American football’s NFL.
The government body is understood to be disappointed but not necessarily surprised by Modi's attacks, and to feel the process was always likely to attract these types of comments from some quarters.
