The Glazer family, Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham group and Red Bull are among the potential investors in Hundred franchises later this year.
The fourth edition of the men’s and women’s Hundred begins on Tuesday against the backdrop of the looming investment into the competitions. In September, the England and Wales Cricket Board will begin a three-month auction-style process of selling stakes in the eight teams as it looks to reboot the competition from 2025.
The ECB said on Monday that it had spoken to all 10 team owners in the Indian Premier League – whose interest in investing varies – and had even sent videos and documents explaining the laws of cricket to the owners of NFL teams in a bid to drum up the appetite to invest in America.
Telegraph Sport can reveal a number of the parties that remain interested in investing following talks with the ECB and their advisers, Deloitte and the Raine Group.
The Glazer family bought Manchester United in 2005 and still retain a majority stake in the club, even after Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group reduced their control by purchasing 25 per cent that includes control of all football operations. The Glazers have owned Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL since 1995, and have already dipped their toe into the franchise cricket market by buying Desert Vipers in the UAE’s ILT20. They have now expressed firm interest in investing in a Hundred franchise.
Hollywood superstar Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, another American actor, completed a deal to buy then non-league Wrexham in February 2021. Since, there have been three seasons of their Welcome To Wrexham documentary on the streaming service Disney+ and the global profile of the club has been transformed.
Now they are understood to be interested in investing in Cardiff-based Welsh Fire, who are expected to draw the lowest value bids of the eight. After the potential investors held a series of meetings with the ECB, attempts are being made to get them to a game during this season’s tournament to further assess the situation.
ECB executives met with Satya Nadella, the CEO and chairman of Microsoft, on a recent trip to New York to watch India v Pakistan at the T20 World Cup. Nadella is already a co-owner of Seattle Orcas in the USA’s Major League Cricket, and has also expressed an investing in the Hundred.
Knighthead Capital, who own Birmingham City alongside former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, are understood to be attending the Kia Oval for Tuesday’s sold-out season opener between Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix, who they are interested in adding to a Midlands portfolio.
