Yorkshire are set to turn into the primary county to sell a whole 100% stake of their Hundred team, after agreeing to a reported £100million take care of the owners of Indian Premier League franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Group, which also owns Sunrisers Eastern Cape in South Africa’s T20 league, saw off rival bidders for an initial 49 per cent of the Headingley-based outfit.
It is known the group followed by striking a deal for Yorkshire’s 51% host’s share, giving them sole control of the Superchargers.
The team has yet to taste any tangible success in 4 seasons of the competition, but boasts international star quality in the shape of men’s head coach Andrew Flintoff and star players like Harry Brook, Adil Rashid and Kate Cross.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has now auctioned off shares in six of its eight city-based sides, with the running tally of latest money as much as around £450m pending the finalisation of terms.
Silicon Valley consortium
An estimated £145m of that got here from a Silicon Valley consortium that won a bidding war for Lord’s-based London Spirit, while three of the successful bidders are IPL affiliated groups including RPSG (Lucknow Super Giants) at Manchester Originals and Reliance (Mumbai Indians) partnering with Surrey at Oval Invincibles.
Money raised from the ECB’s 49% holdings can be shared 19 ways, between all 18 first-class counties in addition to a donation to the recreational game, with the hosts benefiting from the opposite 51 per cent.
In Yorkshire’s case their Indian windfall should help cure longstanding financial troubles which have, at times, solid doubt over the viability of their business.
The shadow of a £15m debt to the Graves family trust has long hung over Yorkshire but may now be cleared in a single fell swoop, staving off plans to demutualise the club and end its status as a members’ club.
Yorkshire Delighted
Yorkshire’s chief executive Sanjay Patel, who formerly served as managing director of the Hundred, welcomed the news, adding: “We’re delighted to be getting into an exclusivity period with the SUN Group, and can be continuing our conversations with them in the approaching weeks with a view to setting the Northern Superchargers up for long-term and sustained success.
“Having been in consultation with them for a while now, it is evident that they’re aligned to the values and future direction of the club and can play an enormous part in ensuring we will go on to attain great success in the approaching years.
“Today is clearly an enormous milestone for Yorkshire CCC, the Northern Superchargers and the Sun Group, but it surely is value stressing that there may be plenty of detail to be discussed alongside further due diligence and legal processes before a contract might be signed.”
Hundred Auction
The Superchargers auction was pushed from its initial spot on Tuesday, allowing unsuccessful bidders from earlier sessions to reopen negotiations with Yorkshire, a move intended to maximise the underside line.
Trent Rockets and Southern Brave can be up for grabs in the approaching days, with the latter prone to be taken on by Hampshire owners GMR, meaning one other 100 per-cent owner.
Warwickshire, meanwhile, have spoken publicly for the primary time since Knighthead Capital Management – the Recent York-based firm who already owns Birmingham City – won the race to speculate in Birmingham Phoenix.
Chief executive Stuart Cain said: “Throughout the method Knighthead demonstrated a robust financial commitment and a deep understanding of what it takes to raise high-performance sport.
“They’ve far-reaching global influence that can help us promote Birmingham Phoenix to cricket and sport fans around the globe and a wealth of sports investment experience.
“We’d said at first of this process that we wanted an investor committed to speculate within the region and be with us for the long run, to make an actual difference.
“I consider we’ve found that in Knighthead and we sit up for working with them during this exclusivity period.”
