'We will not sell the game short' - ECB chair Richard Thompson turns down Bridgepoint Group's tempting offer

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chair Richard Thompson has claimed that the board's premier cricket tournament, The Hundred is worth 'a lot more' than £400m in response to Bridgepoint Group’s offer.

Earlier, Bridgepoint Group, a London-listed buyout firm, had offered to acquire a 75% stake in the competition for a price of £400m. However, the recently appointed chair of the ECB, Thompson believes that the price was rather ‘exaggerated’. Furthermore, he also added that the management is not contemplating selling the tournament which is only two years old.

"The Hundred has created an awful lot of interest in private equity markets. Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL sold for nearly $1bn, so I would say a tournament is worth a lot more. We've got a long way to go before we do something. We will not sell the game short,” said the ECB chair.

I would expect more unsolicited offers: Richard Thompson

Prior to the statements, multiple reports suggested that the Bridgepoint Group wanted to acquire a major stake in The Hundred andthat was estimated to inject an additional £300m into English cricket. However, with Thompson claiming that The Hundred is worth way beyond £400m, he also added that he was not surprised by such a lucrative offer.

"We have to take a competition like this very seriously. There is a feeding frenzy around world cricket and private equity so I'm not surprised we had an offer. It shows the interest that The Hundred and English cricket is generating so I would expect more unsolicited offers as well," he said.

The Bridgepoint Group has a track record of investment in MotoGP and has seen the commercial development of the Winter Olympics, through its media rights agency, InFront. In any case, it is now understood that the apex board will not sell the competition to a firm as they have subtly declined the interest shown by the London-listed firm.