GMR Group have, as anticipated, secured a stake in Southern Courageous to conclude the ECB’s strategy of promoting fairness within the Hundred. GMR, co-owners of IPL staff Delhi Capitals, had been already the bulk shareholders of host county Hampshire, having purchased out former proprietor Rod Bransgrove final 12 months.
GMR Group, an Indian infrastructure conglomerate, owns groups in quite a few T20 leagues around the globe, together with Delhi Capitals within the IPL and WPL, Dubai Capitals within the ILT20, Pretoria Capitals within the SA20, in addition to being principal buyers in MLC facet Seattle Orcas.
It brings the variety of Hundred groups purchased into by IPL homeowners to 4, after Northern Superchargers (Solar Group), Manchester Originals (RPSG Group) and Oval Invincibles (Reliance). The ECB’s hopes for a ramification of funding from around the globe had already been realised by offers for Birmingham Phoenix (Knighthead Capital), Welsh Hearth (Sanjay Govil), London Spirit (Silicon Valley consortium) and Trent Rockets (Cain Worldwide).
GMR had turn into the primary abroad homeowners of an English county after they agreed a deal for Bransgrove’s majority shareholding final September. The acquisition didn’t assure a stake in Southern Courageous, nevertheless, with a mechanism requiring GMR to pay truthful market worth for 49% of Courageous earlier than the ECB would sanction the remaining 51% being transferred to Hampshire.
Courageous gained the inaugural males’s Hundred in 2021, in addition to ending as runners-up final 12 months. Within the girls’s competitors, they had been twice runners-up, in 2021 and 2022, earlier than lifting the trophy the next season.
Glamorgan to promote Govil further 1%
Washington Freedom gained MLC in 2024•MLC
Glamorgan have confirmed that they’ve entered into an exclusivity settlement with Sanjay Govil, the proprietor of MLC franchise Washington Freedom, firstly of talks to finalise Govil’s funding in Welsh Hearth. Glamorgan are planning to promote 1% of the 51% transferred by the ECB as Welsh Hearth’s host county, to “create an equal possession cut up” with Govil.
Glamorgan chair, Mark Rhydderch-Roberts, stated: “It was vitally essential for us that any funding associate shared our values, our strategic and business goals and our ambition to develop as a global model. Washington Freedom ticked all the packing containers and has been our most well-liked bidder for a while so we’re delighted that they’ve chosen to associate with us.
“They share our perception that each Glamorgan and Welsh Hearth have enormous potential and that Welsh Hearth, particularly, can turn into a world model, opening business alternatives on a unique scale throughout the entire spectrum of Welsh cricket.
“The expansion of the worldwide sport and the function of the Hundred in participating new audiences, remodeling the Ladies’s sport and showcasing the very best international expertise implies that we’re actually excited by the limitless alternatives that this partnership will current to each events.”
He stated: “I am thrilled for this subsequent step ahead in renewing and increasing cricket for the following technology of followers. I am wanting ahead to the advantages our partnership may have not just for leisure cricket in the UK, however for strengthening the cross-border relationship between worldwide groups, franchises, and followers for years to return.”
