Hundred investors express frustration at ECB's 'pure financial' motives

Prospective investors in Hundred franchises have expressed their frustration with the ECB’s sales process, which will be determined by final bids in the next two weeks. Bidders fear that the efforts they have put into building relationships with potential partners over the past five months may have been wasted, with the process ultimately determined by “pure financial factors”.

Some prospective investors have raised their frustrations that the final stage of the process will be determined by a straightforward financial offer. This has come as a surprise to some bidders, who believed that host venues would consider all final-round offers and choose their preferred partner based on the extensive discussions they have held over the past five months.

“It’s coming down to the highest number wins,” an associate close to a bid team told ESPNcricinfo. “If that’s been the case from the start, then such a drawn-out and confusing process could have been avoided. We, like many, have a compelling case that goes beyond pure financial factors.

“The bidders in this process are very successful people both from the sporting and business worlds. But the whole thing has been unpredictable, and has changed throughout, which has been concerning. This is such a crucial moment in time for the game in England: let’s hope all things have been considered with regards to partnerships versus financial gain.”

ECB defend ‘thorough and rigorous’ process

The ECB deny that the sales will simply be a case of the highest bidder winning, and defended their process as “thorough and rigorous”. They argue that the first two stages of the process saw more than 100 initial expressions of interest cut down significantly in collaboration with the eight host venues, depending on their preferences, with some lucrative offers counted out.

Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, has previously dismissed criticisms of the process, describing it as investors trying to “negotiate through the media”. An ECB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo: “This has been a thorough and rigorous process, with each host venue choosing its own shortlist of potential partners based on who they would like to work with, not making purely financial decisions.

“Our aims have always been to attract interest from a diverse range of parties with relevant skills and expertise to help the Hundred continue to grow, and to maximise value for the whole game. We have had a huge amount of interest and engagement from a wide range of interested parties, and we recognise that this leaves a number of disappointed parties who will not be successful.”

The ECB also insisted that all remaining bidders in the process have submitted bids at each stage of the process. Several prospective investors have queried the recent emergence of a bid from a Silicon Valley tech consortium – led by Nikesh Arora and including the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and Adobe – but the board insisted there have been no late entrants since the initial first-round deadline of October 18.

Another member of a bid team told ESPNcricinfo that they have found the process “complex” and that they feel miscommunication has led to “confusion” among prospective investors. But they added: “I respect what the ECB are doing. They are trying to maximise what they can get from this. They have to do everything they can on that front.”

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98