ECB pledges to avoid 'IPL takeover' of The Hundred

The ECB has vowed to avoid an "IPL takeover" of English cricket after the deadline in the Hundred's sales process comes with substantial American interest. Investors were given a deadline of Monday, December 9, to submit bids in the second round of the process, with each host country or club to give two partner preferences for a potential joint venture.

Eight of the ten IPL franchises are understood to be represented in the process by either their owners or co-owners. They have held extensive talks with counties in the last couple of months. However, there has also been commendable interest from private equity and US-based sports investors, including some who are already associated with English football.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Avram Glazer, the co-owner of Manchester United, has submitted two second-round bids. Cain International, founded by Chelsea co-owner Jonathan Goldstein, and Knighthead Capital, who own Birmingham City, have also reportedly communicated with host counties in the second round.

The ECB, which is hoping to raise a minimum of £350 million from the sales process, has expressed their desire to opt for a spread of investors to a situation in which all eight come from similar backgrounds. In an interview in the new edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly, the board's chairman Richard Thompson said there was "a huge amount of American money" on the table.

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"This isn't going to end up being an IPL takeover. There's a huge amount of American money involved - very sophisticated investors who understand franchise sports. We invented sport, they invented the franchise, and they're looking long-term. They know we've got the best time zone in the world. And if you're looking to maximise the media rights, you look at the fact that rugby and football have got such incredibly successful domestic products, and we haven't. They can see how unvalued that is," Thompson said.

"A lot of those American investors have had huge success investing in the Premier League and feel that the way that English law is structured, the way there is this tribalism and passion for sport in this country, they've seen that success play out through football and think, 'well, that can play out just as easily in cricket, if we invest well'," he added.

Cricket enthusiasts are well aware that IPL franchises have made heavy investments in the three major franchise leagues that were launched in the past couple of years. Between them, they have stakes in four out of the six Major League Cricket (MLC) franchises in the USA, three of the six ILT20 franchises in the UAE, and all six teams in South Africa's SA20. As the landsceape of the sport continues to change every year, it will be interesting to see what the future of English cricket looks like after the comhepletion of the process.