England’s premier T20 league tournament, The Hundred is now receiving offers from third parties.
Recently, the Bridgepoint Group came up with an offer of a 75% stake in the tournament. However, the ECB is not yet ready to sell off the tournament.
ECB Chairman Richard Thompson says that The Hundred is worth a lot more than just a huge amount of money.
He says,
The Hundred has created an awful lot of interest in private equity markets.
Adding further, he says,
Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL sold for nearly $1bn, so I would say a tournament is worth a lot more.
The Hundred is a 100-ball competition that is only two years old and is played by both men and women.
ECB currently owns all eight teams of the tournament along with the competition which is why Thompson is not willing to sell it off to a third party.
We’ve got a long way to go before we do something. We will not sell the game short.
However, The Hundred has been a somewhat divisive presence on the English cricket scene because it distracts the audiences from county cricket and takes up the whole month of August.
Earlier, Thompson and incoming ECB chief executive, Richard Gould also opposed The Hundred when they were in the same positions at Surrey.
However, Thompson is now transformed and has understood the market that the competition is garnering through its success.
We have to take a competition like this very seriously.
But, Thompson did not reveal the amount of the bid, calling it ‘unsolicited’.,
It shows the interest The Hundred and English cricket is generating so I would expect more unsolicited offers as well.
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