The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) turned down a lucrative 10-year buy-out deal from former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for its franchise-based property ‘The Hundred,’ citing a desire to maintain good relations with the strong BCCI. The Daily Telegraph reported on this development. For “serious misconduct and indiscipline” in connection with bids for two new IPL franchises in 2010, Modi was given a life ban by the BCCI in 2013. After leaving India, Modi relocated to London. Modi had scheduled the contest for July 1–August 15, the height of the English summer. Scroll down to read, Revealed: ECB Rejects Lalit Modi Offer To Buy ‘The Hundred’.
Revealed: ECB Rejects Lalit Modi Offer To Buy ‘The Hundred’
According to the British tabloid, “Vickram Banerjee, the director of operations for the England and Wales Cricket Board and the de facto leader of the Hundred, together with chief executive Richard Gould, were approached by Modi’s delegates to submit a 10-year proposal to purchase the Hundred and finance it with private money. But the European Central Bank will not pursue negotiations with Modi.”
The ECB is concerned about the possible drawbacks of collaboration because “dealing with Modi would jeopardize its relationship with the BCCI,” but it is also unwilling to give up ownership of its flagship product entirely.
It should be mentioned that the Bridgepoint Group made a comparable offer to the ECB for GBP 400 million in exchange for a 75% share in “The Hundred.”
“At the time, Richard Thompson, the ECB’s chairman, said he would only consider offers of a “few billion,” and since then, the ECB has pursued a strategy of selling equity in the teams, with the board retaining ownership of the competition,” the publication continued.
Modi told the Telegraph Sport that “he has lined up investors willing to pump money into a 10-team tournament but told the ECB the Hundred format does not work and should be converted into a Twenty20 competition instead.”
According to the offer document, the team purse would have been USD 10 million per season, or around INR 83 crore to INR 95 crore for the IPL.
Modi predicted that the competition would be valued at USD 100 million annually for ten years.
The ECB had been urged by the former IPL commissioner not to allow more than two IPL franchises to own teams.
His motto was “franchises should be English-owned and English-run with minimal input from India.” For the previous 18 months, Modi had been in communication with the English cricket establishment, to make it the second-biggest league after the Indian Premier League.
Modi said to Telegraph Sport, “I promise them a billion dollars. I made a suggestion to the ECB, but it came with a lot of restrictions, and many individuals have contacted me wanting to support it. There should only be two franchises offered to Indian customers because the Hundred format is ineffective. Only an English competition, not an Indo-centric one, can make it succeed,” he stated.
The European Central Bank (ECB) thinks it can sell equity (shares) for GBP 100 million.
