English cricket's Hundred valued at almost £1 billion
The Hundred
It takes the total value of the eight-team tournament close to a mammoth £1 billion ($1.2 billion).
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GMR, the owners of the Brave's host county Hampshire and the co-owners of Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals, have agreed to pay a reported fee of nearly £50 million for a 49 percent holding in the team.
A period of exclusivity between the counties and their prospective investors will now ensue as details of each deal for a club in the 100 balls per side competition, which features both men and women's teams, are finalised.
But with the sales process complete, it means the eight teams -- which only played their first matches in 2021 -- have been valued at a remarkable collective figure in excess of £950 million.
The Hundred, has proved controversial, with many English and Welsh county fans angry at the way the tournament deprives their clubs of key players at the height of the season.
But cricket chiefs say funds raised from sales in Hundred franchises will support the 18 traditional counties, with current figures way in excess of the ECB's lowest original estimate of £350 million.
The biggest individual Hundred deal was for the Lord's-based London Spirit, with a Silicon Valley consortium paying £145 million for a minority share in a team whose total worth is valued at more than £290 million.
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Four groups from the lucrative IPL, cricket's wealthiest franchise competition, are now involved in the Hundred.
In addition to GMR, the other IPL outfits with Hundred stakes are Reliance (Mumbai Indians and Oval Invincibles), Sun Group (Sunrisers Hyderabad and Northern Superchargers) and RPSG (Lucknow Supergiants and Manchester Originals).
Yorkshire have already agreed to sell on their controlling 51 percent share in Superchargers to the Sun Group, while RPSG have negotiated to buy 70 percent of the Originals in their deal with Lancashire.
But other sporting groups have also ploughed large sums of money into the Hundred.
Todd Boehly, co-owner of Premier League club Chelsea, has agreed to pay nearly £40 million for 49 percent of the Trent Rockets.
The American billionaire is also a minority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
Further US interest has come from Knighthead Capital, whose investors include former NFL star Tom Brady, with the group adding a stake in Birmingham Phoenix to their existing ownership of Birmingham City football club.
And tech entrepreneur Sanjay Govil, who also owns Washington Freedom, the champions of America's Major League Cricket, has agreed to pay Glamorgan £40 million for 49 percent of the Welsh Fire.
