London Spirit investors believe Hundred can rival IPL

The head of the Silicon Valley technology consortium that bid £144 million (US$193 million approx.) for a 49% stake in London Spirit in January believes that the Hundred can become "a mutli-billion dollar product" to rival the IPL.

Nikesh Arora, the CEO of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, leads Cricket Investor Holdings Limited - better known as the 'Tech Titans' - and is a newly-appointed board member at Spirit after they completed their lucrative deal for a minority stake. They will run the franchise as a joint venture with MCC, who hosted the consortium at Lord's this week.

The consortium has grown in number since seeing off significant competition from Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG Group in a virtual auction earlier this year, with Arora estimating that 15 of its members were at Lord's to watch the Hundred's opening match day - which saw Spirit's women beat Oval Invincibles, but the men's team bowled out for 80.

They met Justin Langer and Kane Williamson at a training session on Monday, and dined in the pavilion that evening before lining a hospitality suite in the Edrich Stand on Tuesday. The CEOs of Adobe, Google and YouTube are all involved; Satyan Gajwani, the vice-chairman of Times Internet, suggested that not even the World Economic Forum could bring them all together.

Arora and Gajwani walked across the outfield and posed by the pitch after Tuesday night's games, a display of power which laid bare the new era that awaits English cricket. "This is a way to get involved with one of the most storied and hallowed grounds in the world," Arora said at Lord's, while watching his new team for the first time. "It's like bringing our passions to our work.

"We've never had buyer's remorse. We've never been stressed about what we paid. I have more people who want to be part of the consortium now than I had before I made the investment, so it's not a problem. Many of them are here; they flew from the US to come watch it. This is a passion for every one of us… It's going to be fun."

Chair Mark Nicholas has promised MCC members a "major relaunch" of the franchise once the joint venture assumes operational control from the ECB on October 1. The London Spirit name is expected to remain for the time being but new sponsors and new kits have been lined up, potentially incorporating egg-and-bacon trim or piping as a nod to the club's famous colours.

The eight Hundred franchises were sold at a combined valuation of around £975 million ($1.3 billion approx.) earlier this year. Six deals have now been signed off, with Cain International and Reliance Industries expected to complete their purchases of stakes in Trent Rockets and Oval Invincibles respectively after the 2025 season is complete.

Arora believes that the arrival of eight new investors simultaneously can "optimise" the Hundred and turn it into a "product" that rivals the most lucrative league in the world: "The IPL started from nowhere, and became a multi-billion dollar product. Why couldn't this be that product? It's not just us, there are eight new shareholders, give or take, across eight new franchises.

"They all have successful businesses or cricket operations somewhere in the world. If that energy, that passion, that creativity, that innovation is brought to this, imagine what they could do? The ECB incubated it, which is great. But I'm sure there are ways to optimise things a bit better. I don't think the Hundred is a bad product… It's about creating the excitement around it."

Gajwani, a co-founder of Major League Cricket, agrees. "Bringing in stakeholders beyond governing bodies has almost always improved products," he said. "You've got eight best-in-class investors, operators; people who understand business, consumer, sport, globally, locally. You've got all of it in terms of the membership that's going to be on the board of the Hundred.

"Relative to almost every other sport, cricket has less private power… The NBA is run privately, the NFL is privately, La Liga, EPL (English Premier League football) are private. Generally, the influx of diverse views, different stakeholders, these are things that will bring innovation in its own form."

Gajwani believes that the Hundred's "core" audience will always be based in the UK, rather than overseas: "It starts with a strong domestic product." But Richard Thompson, the ECB chair, said last week that it is "a matter of time" before India men's players feature in the Hundred, a change which would create a significant spike in the value of overseas broadcast rights.

"It's a question for some of the people in the BCCI, and maybe the ICC," Gajwani said. "But as these leagues outside of the IPL become interesting, more meaningful and more substantial, I can tell you personally, there are a number of players in India that are super excited about the idea of playing out here. The economics, commercials, contracts and all that stuff is complicated."

The Tech Titans only hold three out of seven director seats on Spirit's new board: Arora, Gajwani and Egon Durban (co-CEO of private equity fund Silver Lake) will join Robert Lawson (MCC chief executive), Julian Metherell (incoming committee member), Eoin Morgan (incoming chair of cricket) and one other MCC nominee, with Metherell acting as chair.

Arora emphasised his consortium's status as minority partners: "They [MCC] are 51% shareholders. We let them take the lead, which is good. They understand their cricket, they understand the stadium, they understand the locals. From our perspective, we bring a) passion, for sure; and b) knowledge and experience."

Arora and Gajwani followed India's last-gasp win over England at The Oval remotely on Monday, and both describe themselves as genuine cricket fans. "I would have been the first to say everything's moving this way [towards short-form cricket]," Gajwani said. "But the last month has shown how much frickin' energy there can be behind Tests.

"Cricket has this interesting tension between history and future, probably more than other sports… They are different audiences. You look around here, I'd say the average age is younger, more family-oriented, more female. Test cricket is probably more of a classical and more traditional crowd overall, but they both have their place."

And Arora insists that his consortium's investment in the Hundred is nothing to fear for traditionalists who have no interest in the shorter formats. "Don't underestimate the fact that around 50% of our consortium grew up in India 30-35 years ago," he said. "We grew up watching people like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, and we like watching Ben Stokes now.

"Part of it is just being able to associate with your idols; being able to associate with a sport that you grew up watching in the middle of the night. We still watch cricket in California at 3am or 4am. This is our sport."