A consortium of Silicon Valley financiers and executives is mounting a late bid to block England’s Hundred cricket tournament auction by submitting bids for the two London-based franchises.
Sky News has learned that Nikesh Arora, the chief executive of Palo Alto Networks, is leading a syndicate of wealthy executives to buy a major stake in either Oval Invincibles or its more expensive rival, London Spirit, based in Lords.
Sources said Mr. Arora, a former executive at SoftBank, the giant Japanese technology group, was looking at potential co-investors, including Egon Durban, co-chief executive of Silver Lake, the west coast-based backer of New Zealand Rugby and the RAC. breakdown service.
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Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft and an investor in Major League Cricket in the United States, is also among those expected to be approached to join the consortium if it succeeds in acquiring a stake in one of the London-based Hundred franchises , according to cricket insiders.
The deals led by Mr. Arora face stiff competition due to interest from major financial players such as CVC Capital Partners and high-net-worth individuals, including Todd Boehly, co-owner of the Chelsea Football Club.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the eight host nations are in the process of narrowing down the field of bidders for stakes in the eight franchises, including Birmingham Phoenix, Northern Superchargers and Southern Brave.
Under the ECB’s plans, it intends to sell its 49% stake in each of the eight teams, with counties remaining free to decide whether they wish to offload part of their 51% stakes.
None of the London franchises should cede their overall control to external investors.
The process is expected to raise hundreds of millions of pounds, which will be distributed across all of England’s cricket counties as well as grassroots football.
The final amounts remain subject to wide-ranging speculation and will not be known until the spring.
Other bidders to date have reportedly included a large number of Indian Premier League team owners and investors, the Glazer family, who continue to hold a significant stake in Manchester United FC, and Liberty Media.
In total, around 35 offers were reportedly pre-selected for the eight teams, with these proposals in turn coming from around 15 separate investor groups.
A larger-than-expected windfall from the process could provide a financial lifeline to a number of cash-strapped counties, with some of the proceeds likely to be used to pay down debt.
Concerns have been raised, however, that the windfall profits from the Hundred auction will not bring a significant improvement to the long-term financial viability of the counties.
The outcome of the Hundred auction is also likely to intensify other research questions about the future of cricket, as the Test format of the game struggles for international commercial relevance in the face of shorter-lived competition.
The Hundred auction is being handled by bankers at Raine Group, the same company that has overseen the sale of large stakes in Manchester United and Chelsea in recent years.