Latest news with #VikramBanerjee
The Independent
15-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Ben Stokes would ‘jump at chance' to lead Durham Hundred team, says county chief
Durham believe England captain Ben Stokes would 'jump at the chance' to front a new Hundred team in the region, but accept they may have to wait until 2029 for the tournament to expand. Discussions are still continuing between the England and Wales Cricket Board and the private investment groups who have agreed to plough around £520million of new money into the competition, with a number of areas yet to be ironed out before contracts are signed. One of those relates to the terms for any future increase from the current eight-team structure, something Durham have long positioned themselves to benefit from. The ECB's director of business operations, Vikram Banerjee, has described the idea as a 'no-brainer', but some prospective co-owners are more guarded about potentially diluting their stake in future broadcast deals. Durham chief executive Tim Bostock still believes it will happen and is optimistic about bringing the Hundred to the Banks Home Riverside, but accepts there may be no movement until the current rights cycle ends in 2028. 'The way the sales have gone, with the money that has been committed, the clear message is they are unlikely to expand before the end of the broadcast deal,' he told the PA news agency. 'I think there will be expansion and when that day comes we are ready. In terms of facilities, demographics, having an international stadium, likely investment, putting a team together, we are ready to go. 'Look at the quality of players we produce for England. We have high-profile players who may be interested in fronting up a Durham franchise…we've got the England captain here. 'I'm sure at some stage Ben would jump at the chance at being the face of it, definitely. All of that works. It's all about timing, but I don't see a better candidate than us.' Stokes has been aligned to the Headingley-based Northern Superchargers since the Hundred launched but has played only a handful of games. He opted out of this year's edition in a bid to manage his fitness and therefore was not retained. Bostock believes adding a ninth team would be a relatively straightforward change and could be done without adding to the tournament's overall footprint. At present teams play their nearest geographical rivals home and away and every other side once. Yet he also expects an expanded fixture list to be on the agenda sooner rather than later as investors seek to maximise value. 'Nine is actually a better number than eight, everyone plays each other once, so it can be done quite easily,' he said. 'But they might decide there is a demand for more games. I don't think they'll be happy with just four home matches. 'The traditional county watcher might fear for the 27 days (the competition's current window). It would be naive to think they won't get more days, but I don't think it will ever be an IPL situation of two or three months. 'There are two ways to increase the matches, more games between themselves or bring more teams in. I think it will organically happen.'
BBC News
27-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Banerjee appointed as Hundred managing director
Vikram Banerjee has been appointed managing director of The Hundred by the England and Wales Cricket Board after he oversaw the sale of stakes in the teams to private new investment resulted in the combined worth of the eight Hundred teams being valued at over £ chief executive officer Richard Gould said: "Vikram has led the work to attract new partners into the competition superbly, and is the perfect person to now conclude these deals and work with the teams and investors to take The Hundred to the next level over the coming years."Having been at the heart of developing the ECB's Inspiring Generations strategy for cricket, he also truly understands how The Hundred can not only grow the game but also support the whole of cricket in England and Wales."Former Gloucestershire bowler Banerjee, 40, who was the ECB's director of business operations, will work on concluding the sales of stakes in the Hundred franchises, as well as continued growth on the said: "I'm delighted to be taking on this new role, and to be able to drive the competition forward, building on the success of the competition so far and working with a new group of partners who bring such an impressive range of skills and expertise from the very best of global sport and industry."Through sales of stakes in the franchises, a figure north of £500m raised will be shared between the ECB's 18 professional counties, Marleybone Cricket Club (MCC) and the domestic Brave and the Northern Superchargers are the two sides to have been bought out in their entirety by Indian Premier League side Delhi Capitals and the Sun Group, who own IPL side Sunrisers Hyderabad, sold a 70% stake of the Manchester Originals to the owners of IPL side Lucknow Super Giants for around £ owners of Mumbai Indians became the fourth IPL team to buy a stake in a Hundred franchise, purchasing 49% of the Oval Invincibles from Surrey for £ Chelsea owner Todd Boehly agreed to pay just under £40m for a 49% share in Trent agreed a 49% sale of Birmingham Phoenix to Birmingham City owners Knighthead Capital for £40m and Glamorgan sold the same stake in Welsh Fire to IT entrepreneur Sanjay Govil for £ the eight sales, the most lucrative has been the £145m from a consortium led by Nikesh Arora for a 49% share of London sales are currently in an eight-week exclusivity period and are expected to be concluded by the start of the new season.
BBC News
14-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
'Justify' Hundred expansion, says Originals chair
Any expansion of The Hundred from eight teams would need to be justified, according to the chair of Manchester Thursday, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director of business operations Vikram Banerjee said expansion is a "no brainer" after auctions valued the current eight teams at a combined £ earliest any more teams could be added would be 2029, following the conclusion of the ECB's broadcast deal with the possibility of expansion in 2029, Originals chair James Sheridan said: "It is understandable that the ECB is open to that because it has stakeholders who want to join the party."Whether it makes sense for team owners and the existing eight teams, we'll have to see."We have to see that people who've invested an awful lot of money in the competition and the teams are seeing a growth in that investment to justify an expansion."Sheridan was speaking at an event to launch the Originals' partnership with the RPSG Group, owners of Indian Premier League (IPL) side Lucknow Super Giants. RPSG have agreed to pay just over £80m for a 70% stake in the franchise based at Old were one of two new teams to join the IPL when it expanded from eight to 10 franchises in 2022, 14 years after its inaugural season. The Hundred is a much younger competition, having been founded in 2021. Sheridan pointed to the format of The Hundred, which includes men's and women's competitions with double-header matches at the same venue each day, and the existence of the counties' T20 Blast."The UK has got an 18-team short-form tournament," he said."One of the special things about The Hundred has been the double-header, top-level women's cricket alongside top-level men's cricket, and there should be a focus on getting that better and better."Expansion only makes sense if this competition grows very strongly over that period of time, a quick period."Banerjee, who oversaw the sales of stakes in the eight existing Hundred teams, explained that expansion would depend on the financial benefits, identifying suitable venues and having the depth of players to fill more terms of location, Durham's Chester-le-Street and a ground in the south west, Somerset or Gloucestershire, would be the most likely candidates for a new ECB has been adamant that The Hundred will not take up any extra space in the calendar, sticking to a window of four weeks in the school summer the current format includes each team playing eight group matches - six opponents once and their nearest rivals twice - expanding to nine teams playing each other once would not greatly inflate the number of games played, supporting the assertion that it is possible to grow The Hundred within the current growth to 10 teams could lead to 13 more group games than the current schedule if each team played one another Goenka, vice-chair of the RPSG Group, said: "Globally we have seen some sporting events expanded in terms of a number of franchises being added."When you look at it from a before and after situation, the overall event and individual franchises have always done better once more teams have been introduced."Those teams generally get introduced once there is a certain base that has been established for a competition."
The Guardian
13-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Hundred expansion a ‘no-brainer' if investment succeeds, predicts ECB chief
English cricket bosses believe that it will be 'almost a no-brainer' to expand the Hundred in the future after raising more than £520m by selling a stake in each of the competition's eight teams. The England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Thursday that the eight bids had placed a total enterprise value of just over £975m on the Hundred teams – with £520m being injected into the professional and recreational game. However the ECB believes that the success and global interest in the auction, which led to a consortium of Silicon Valley investors pledging to pay £144m for a 49% stake in the Lord's-based London Spirit, along with four separate Indian Premier League owners taking weighty stakes in other franchises, means the competition is likely to expand in the coming years. 'I think expansion is a good sign if it happens,' said Vikram Banerjee, the ECB's director of business operations. 'So we would be delighted if it does. We've still got a lot of hard work now. But if the tournament grows, and cricket grows across the country, then it'll be almost a no brainer for us.' However the sport's governing body insisted that it would retain control of the governance of the competition and the calendar, despite the influx of wealthy and powerful investors into the game. 'We didn't want to sell the competition, because it's really important that the structure of the game, and how the season is structured, is retained and owned by the ECB and our members,' the organisation's chief executive, Richard Gould, said. 'And there has to be a two-thirds majority in the ECB articles for any change to the County Championship, T20 Blast or any domestic cricket project.' 'What we've got to work through with the counties is, what's the most effective and efficient English summer now? The Hundred has been here for a while. Obviously, it's not going away. So what does the rest of the English summer look like?' A number of investors are understood to prefer the Hundred to become a Twenty20 competition in line with other tournaments overseas once the current TV deal runs out in 2028. However this possibility was downplayed by the ECB. 'At this point in time, we haven't had a huge amount of clamour for changing the format,' said Banerjee. 'They just want to see a successful tournament that continues to grow. That's what they've bought into.' The ECB also denied suggestions that the Hundred might be staged earlier in the day to appeal to the Indian market, especially as games in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies started at 10.30am last year because of Indian TV demands. 'What the investors are looking to do is things that can be successful with audiences in this country,' added Banerjee. 'And the aspects of the Hundred that have worked well in terms of addressing and reaching out to a new market – the fact that it finishes at 9:30pm, so families can attend – is part of what's appealed to investors. Under the terms of the sale – one that promises grassroots initiatives around £50m – even the 11 counties without a team in the Hundred stand to gain somewhere between £20m and £27m each. Meanwhile in a letter to cricket supporters, the ECB chair, Richard Thompson, said the auction would lead to benefits for the game at all levels. 'This investment isn't just about financial strength or growth of The Hundred itself,' he wrote. 'It's given us a golden opportunity to safeguard the future of cricket in England and Wales at all levels. 'This means vital support for county cricket, growing the women's game, and inspiring even more children – and people of all ages – to pick up a bat and ball.'
BBC News
29-01-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Landmark Hundred sales move step closer
A landmark moment for English cricket will move a step closer on Thursday as the final stage of the sale of teams in The Hundred fixtures for the 2025 season announced on Wednesday, a day later Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix will become the first two of the eight franchises matched to preferred other six teams will follow suit in the coming days, with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) set to announce the eight successful investors next of Premier League football clubs and Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, along with figures from technology and entertainment, are among those vying for a bidders will then have an eight-week exclusivity period in which to finalise a deal with a franchise, meaning the sale process will officially be completed in the late 2025 season begins with a London derby, with London Spirit hosting Oval Invincibles at Lord's on 5 August. The final of the fifth staging of the competition will take place on the same ground on 31 August. What is happening? The ECB confirmed its intention to sell stakes in the eight Hundred teams last May. Raine Group – the bank that oversaw the sales of football clubs Manchester United and Chelsea – has been in charge of the the teams are being sold, the ECB will retain ownership of the competition itself, having rejected a bid for the tournament from Bridgepoint Capital in sales, expected to generate hundreds of millions of pounds, are designed to safeguard the financial future of an English game badly in need of director of business operations Vikram Banerjee told BBC Sport: "It's a really exciting moment. It's an opportunity for us to learn from other sports that have done it, and done it really well. I do think this will help the whole game grow at quite a rate."Still, The Hundred is a highly divisive presence in English cricket, with some supporters believing it detracts from other, more traditional, forms of the game. In order to make space for The Hundred, there is almost no international cricket in August of this are concerned that inviting outside investment is tantamount to a 'privatisation' of part of the summer and will lead to The Hundred taking up more room in the ECB is adamant it will retain control of the competition and the earliest any expansion could come is at the end of the current broadcast deal with Sky in 2028. What is being sold and where will the money go? The hosts of the eight teams have been given a 51% stake in their franchise, which they can sell or keep, with the ECB then selling the remaining 49%.The eight hosts are Lord's (Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)/London Spirit), The Oval (Surrey/Oval Invincibles), Southampton (Hampshire/Southern Brave), Cardiff (Glamorgan/Welsh Fire), Trent Bridge (Nottinghamshire/Trent Rockets), Edgbaston (Warwickshire/Birmingham Phoenix), Old Trafford (Lancashire/Manchester Originals) and Headingley (Yorkshire/Northern Superchargers).Of the 51% the hosts have been given, they can keep all, or choose to sell all or part of their stake. Some, like Surrey and Warwickshire, want to keep their entire stake, while others - such as Lancashire - are open to selling some of it and Yorkshire may opt to sell all of the total money raised, 10% will go straight to the recreational game. Proceeds from the 49% sales will be divided between the 18 first-class counties and the MCC. If a host decides to sell part or all of its stake, it will hand over 10% of what it receives to be divided between the 18 counties and MCC. Who is buying? The ECB said it had initial interest from more than 100 potential buyers, a number that has gradually been whittled down to around 15 two and four bidders have been shortlisted for each franchise. Some investors are on the shortlist for more than one franchise, so if they miss out on their first choice, they may be successful to the IPL are inevitable, given the investment already made in leagues across the world. The co-owners of Delhi Capitals finalised a takeover of county club Hampshire in September and, as a result, are on course to secure sole ownership of Southern have been open about their desire to partner Manchester Originals alongside an IPL team, with the owners of the Mumbai Indians and the Lucknow Super Giants thought to be in the running, alongside US the ECB has been keen to secure investment from a range of sources and some Hundred franchises are keen to avoid an IPL link, primarily to guard against interference in cricketing matters. Oval Invincibles, for example, could be partnered with a consortium of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, or the private investment firm CVC, which is thought to have made it through to the final round of the Boehly, a shareholder in Chelsea, and members of the Glazer family, co-owners of Manchester United, are reportedly among those interested in acquiring a stake in London Spirit."We are looking to create the blend of the best eight partners that can help the tournament grow and also use this process to raise funds that will create financially sustainable gain for a generation to come," said Banerjee."We've got a real variety in our shortlist. It's a really exciting moment. I do think this will help the whole game grow at quite a rate."There has been some controversy, however. In September, IPL founder Lalit Modi leaked financial projections linked to the sale on social media, including predictions about future deals for TV rights which he called "disconnected from reality... dangerously overambitious and unsustainable".On Tuesday, the ECB responded to a report claiming that some prospective investors were frustrated with the sales process, defending it as "thorough and rigorous" in a statement. The governing body also insisted that host venues had decided on shortlists of potential partners "based on who they would like to work with, not making purely financial decisions". What will change? One key aim for the ECB is to attract more of the top men's players to The Hundred, which competes against leagues in the US and Caribbean in a crowded part of the calendar. Investment should aid this goal by making possible the offer of higher pay for the top men's players is increasing from £125,000 to £200,000 in 2025, the sales will be completed too late for any other significant changes to be implemented this ECB sees the upcoming season as "transitional", with more tangible changes in 2026. These could include team names, colours and branding being 2025, the London derby means the defending champions in the men's and women's competitions, the Invincibles and Spirit respectively, are in action on the opening in previous years, the Eliminator contest between the teams that finish second and third in the table will take place the day before the final at The Oval with no reserve day. The final does have the provision of a reserve day.
