IPL team in England's The Hundred? MCC president Mark Nicholas confirms 'soft interest'
IPL team in England's The Hundred? MCC president Mark Nicholas confirms 'soft interest'
Mark Nicholas, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) president, has confirmed that five Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises have shown 'soft' interest in buying a stake in The Hundred. The interest shown is to buy a share in Lord's team based out of London.
The Hundred is a novel franchise-based competition in England where each side plays 100 balls in an innings.
The move comes after England Cricket Board's (ECB) bid to privatise competition up to certain extent. Under the proposed model, all eight host cities including London-based MCC will be given 51% stake in the franchise while ECB selling remaining 49% to investors.
Nicolas echoed the same views and said that the Hundred gives English cricket an opportunity what onset of T20 had given them back in 2003. England's maiden T20 tournament in 2003 fell flat and IPL, launched by BCCI in 2008, took over the franchise cricket after that.
"We missed out on T20 in 2003 where we could have grabbed it," Nicholas said. "India thought quicker than us and were smarter than us, as India often is. India moves at an extraordinary pace to make things work.
"So the Hundred has given us another opportunity. The [MCC] membership quite likes being part of the chat, not being consigned to a piece of history. The members I talk to really love the idea of having a team, love the opportunity that it brings. There will be financial opportunity, either in growth of the equity or in sale of the equity," he added.
This would not be the first time also that IPL looks to expand its footprint beyond India. Some franchise namely Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings have teams in other league as well.
The major leagues where IPL teams have ownership stake in different franchise are USA based Major League Cricket (MLC), South Africa's SA20 and West Indies' Caribbean Premier League (CPL).