'We are confident in our product' - ECB leadership defends projected valuation of overseas broadcast rights

The England & Wales Cricket Board sent investment catalogues to around 100 interested stakeholders in September. October 18 was the deadline set for initial interests to get registered in a bid to purchase a stake in one of the eight participants of The Hundred. The teams, currently owned by the ECB, are all set to become joint ventures with either host counties or the Marylebone Cricket Club on the completion of the sale process. 

£2 million/year is the current value at which the overcast broadcast rights are valued at the moment. Reports by Deloitte and the Raine Group have a projected value of the rights springing to £33 million by 2030. A prospective investor did not quite find the inflated figure to be fully warranted.

"It seems like they first thought of a valuation and then made up the numbers to justify it - things like the sudden and exponential growth in broadcast revenue from India and North America," stated the investor, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Also Read: Lalit Modi doubtful of ECB's ambitious financial prospects concerning The Hundred

The CEO of the ECB, Richard Gould, justified the numbers and seemed positive regarding the period in which The Hundred will be conducted as well as the pool of players at their disposal. 

"We are not making an assumption that India's men's players will be released, because that has not been what has happened. We are confident in our product, in terms of the window we occupy and the players we've got available. There are loads of T20 and short-format franchise competitions out there at the moment, and I don't think they are all going to last, in truth," mentioned Gould.

The worst thing we could do would be to undersell the game: Gould

As exciting as the prospect seemed to Gould, he was aware of not making a hasty decision in terms of selling the franchises for a value less than their potential evaluation.

Also Read: It would not be in cricket's interests for India not to be playing in Champions Trophy, says ECB CEO

"What we don't want is to just feel bounced into selling all of them and thinking, 'We could have got a lot more if we'd held back because that particular team wasn't ready to go'. The worst thing we could do would be to undersell the game and look back thinking, 'we let some of these franchises go at prices that weren't full market value.'," added Gould.

The Director of Business Operations of the ECB, Vikram Banerjee, had warned last month about there being a delay in the sale process if the right bids do not come through.