Rajasthan Royals launch ANOTHER bid to invest in cash-strapped Yorkshire, after the IPL side failed with a £25m offer to buy the club outright last year

• Rajasthan Royals were unsuccessful with a bid to buy Yorkshire outright in 2023
• They have now launched another bid to invest in the county cricket club 

Rajasthan Royals have launched another bid to buy into Yorkshire with club facing going bust unless they attract new investment this year. 

In an email sent to Yorkshire members earlier today chairman Colin Graves disclosed that the club ‘are engaged in discussions with several potential funding partners’, with Rajasthan understood to be regarded as the most credible investors at this stage.

Mail Sport revealed last September that Rajasthan had offered Yorkshire around £25millon to buy the club outright, but following protracted negotiations that deal collapsed as the Board were reluctant to end over 160 years as a private members’ club. 

In his letter to members today however, Graves described the process of demutualisation – moving from being member-owned into private ownership – as ‘essential’ and admitted Yorkshire are facing a battle for survival.

Graves is understood to have been involved in the initial talks with Rajasthan before he returned to Yorkshire as chairman in February, so their return to the negotiating table is understandable. 

The 76-year-old appears to have had a dramatic change of heart however, as in the run-up to the election which saw him win 88 per cent of the vote Graves told members that Yorkshire had no plans to take the club into private ownership.

Graves now claims that demutualisation is essential for Yorkshire to attract the investment they need to survive after losing £2.7m last year despite hosting a successful Ashes Test match, with further heavy losses forecast for this year. Such a move would need by ratified by a 75 per cent majority of Yorkshire’s members with a turnout of at least 50 per cent.

In today’s letter Graves makes clear that without additional investment Yorkshire’s future beyond this year cannot be guaranteed.

‘Unfortunately there is no doubt that without swift and decisive action YCCC will be fighting for its survival during 2024,’ Graves wrote. ‘During recent months the Board has been working extensively to secure new financing to ensure the club survives throughout 2024.

The club’s current status as a mutual society continues to prove a blocker to attracting private financing. A demutualisation — thereby converting the club to a private structure, which unlocks potential private investment — appears at this point essential for the club’s future. We are currently engaged in discussions with several credible funding partners.’

The size of Rajasthan’s offer and potential stake is not known at this stage, but given their long-term interest the IPL franchise must be regarded as credible bidders.

Investing in Yorkshire would also give them a stake in the potentially more lucrative Northern Superchargers Hundred franchise, as the ECB are in talks about handing over a 51 per cent share of each of the franchises to the host counties, which include Yorkshire.