Lancashire have secured the IPL partner they wanted to run Manchester Originals as a joint venture, with Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG Group submitting the highest bid for a 49% stake in the Hundred franchise on Monday.
RPSG Group, who own Lucknow Super Giants, were the losing bidders in a three-hour auction for a stake in London Spirit on Friday, which was eventually won by a Silicon Valley tech consortium valuing the Lord’s-based franchise at £295 million. But RPSG has now secured a stake in the Manchester-based Hundred franchise at a much lower valuation, likely to be £107 million (100% valuation), or £53 million for a 49% minority share.
ESPNcricinfo first revealed last August that officials from RPSG Group had visited Emirates Old Trafford, with Lancashire chief executive Daniel Gidney making clear in an interview his desire to work with an IPL franchise. Lancashire’s initial shortlist also included Mumbai Indians owners Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), who dropped out of the bidding for Originals after securing a stake in Oval Invincibles last week.
Lancashire have actively grown their profile in India in recent years with a deliberate strategy that has included men’s and women’s pre-season tours and signing Indian internationals Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar and Venkatesh Iyer as overseas players. They are set to return to India next month as part of a pre-season tour.
Goenka, the chairman and founder of business conglomerate RPSG Group, paid INR 7090 crore (£680m approx. at the time) to buy the Lucknow IPL franchise in 2021. He bought the Durban franchise in the SA20 the following year, and previously owned Rising Pune Supergiant. RPSG were involved in the 2016 and 2017 IPL seasons, while Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended.
The deal makes RPSG Group the second IPL owners to buy a stake in a Hundred team, after Reliance. Sun Group, the owners of Sunrisers Hyderabad, are understood to be interested in both Northern Superchargers and Trent Rockets, while GMR Group, the co-owners of Delhi Capitals, are widely expected to secure a stake in Southern Brave, having bought host county Hampshire outright last year.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo
