English Cricket Board reject monster one billion dollar offer from Indian Premier League founder for The Hundred

The English Cricket Board have reportedly turned down a monster $1billion offer from Indian Premier League founder Lalit Modi for The Hundred.

The Daily Telegraph’s chief cricket correspondent Nick Hoult claims Modi and his team met with representatives from the ECB and set out a ten-year plan for English cricket‘s newest domestic league.

The Indian businessman values The Hundred at $1billion and wants to fund the league through private investment.

Modi’s representatives held face-to-face meetings with Vikram Banerjee and ECB chief executive Richard Gould.

However, Hoult reports that the ECB have no interest in selling the competition to Modi for two reasons.

One, they reportedly fear losing control of the domestic season if they sell off The 100.

Second, the ECB want to maintain a good relationship with the BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] because Modi was permanently banned from the organisation in 2013 for serious misconduct.

He was forced to leave the country and now lives in London

The Hundred first got underway in 2021 and is about to hit its third year.

There are eight franchises with no relegation, like the IPL, and it has attracted a new fanbase to the sport.

Hundred games are shorter than T20s, seeing each side face a maximum of 100 balls or until they are bowled out.

There are no overs. Instead, bowlers deliver sets of five balls.

The women’s games are often played on the same day as the men’s, meaning fans get two matches for the price of one, and it’s definitely helped bring women’s cricket to a wider audience.

However, it has caused chaos to England’s county teams, with only eight grounds seeing the benefit of The Hundred.

For example, the Northern Superchargers play in Leeds at Headingley but Durham contribute a lot of players to that team, meaning they lose squad members across the season and see no financial benefit in exchange.

And that’s the same for plenty of other county teams, so there is a need for some sort of reform.

Modi reportedly planned to ditch the format and turn The Hundred into a ten-team T20 competition.

Each side was going to have a considerable wage budget to compete with the IPL.

However, the ECB have rejected the proposal and plan to sell equity to raise funds but keep control of their latest project.