GMR, who have recently purchased Hampshire County, are the favourites to bag the Southern Brave side © Getty Chennai Super Kings have officially withdrawn from the race to acquire a franchise in The Hundred. The franchise CEO, Kasi Viswanathan, confirmed the decision to Cricbuzz, stating that they are no longer pursuing a bid to own a side in the league. This leaves four IPL franchises – Mumbai Indians, Lucknow SuperGiants, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Delhi Capitals – still in contention. “We’ve withdrawn and we have formally informed the England and Wales Cricket Board about it,” Viswanathan told Cricbuzz on Monday. Cricbuzz reported last week that CSK and Kolkata Knight Riders are not going to seriously participate in the bidding. Later this week, ECB is expected to invite financial bids for each franchise in the 100-ball tournament. They are mapping the process in such a way that if an interested party fails to bag a team, it can still be in the race to own one of the remaining teams. There are eight teams up for sale: Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire. According to information obtained from various sources, Reliance Group, the owners of the Mumbai Indians, Sanjiv Goenka of Lucknow SuperGiants and a group of Tech entrepreneurs, who have formed a consortium, are the favourites to bag the two London teams – London Spirit (MCC) and Oval Invincibles (Surrey) – and the one in Manchester (Manchester Originals). Who gets which team will depend on the financial bids, and of course how ECB negotiates with them. The Sun Group, the owners of SunRisers Hyderabad, are in the race to bag one of the Trent Rockets (Nottinghamshire country) and Northern Superchargers. Birmingham City, once an English Premier League (EPL) side, currently competing in the second tier of the English football league, is believed to be interested in owning the eponymous Birmingham Phoenix. The Warwickshire County, which currently owns the Phoenix team, is understood to be not keen on selling its stake, which means the new owner will only have minority shares. The Birmingham situation may suit CVC Capital, a private equity firm, who are known to be interested in investing in entities rather than owning them entirely. Sanjay Govil, the owner of the Washington Freedom in Major League Cricket (MLC) in the US, could be in the race to buy one of Glamorgan country-managed Welsh Fire or Trent Rockets. The Glazers, who own the iconic Manchester United football team, and are also linked to the Desert Vipers side in UAE-based IL T20, may be in the race to buy a side. GMR, who have recently purchased Hampshire County, are the favourites to bag the Southern Brave side. The final round of negotiations and bidding will start in the next few days, most probably on Friday (January 31), and the process should be complete in February, by when the announcement of the new owners may be made. But one is given to understand that the new owners will come into the picture only from the 2026 season since the parties will need a few months to complete the paperwork.
