ECB's financial projections for The Hundred 'disconnected from reality', says IPL founder Lalit Modi

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) financial projections for the profitability of ‘The Hundred’ is largely “disconnected from reality” according to businessman and former cricket administrator Lalit Modi.

Modi also felt The Hundred will struggle to attain international audience the way the Indian Premier League (IPL), the league that he had conceptualised and founded in 2008, has over the years.

The ECB recently made teams in the The Hundred open to investments and is hopeful of securing big deals from owners of various IPL franchises, including those who own teams in other leagues around the world.

But the former IPL commissioner’s series of posts on microblogging platform X with charted numbers showed that none of The Hundred franchises can be valued at anything between GBP 5 million to 25 million, let alone US$ 1 billion.

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“The ECB’s financial projections for The Hundred, particularly beyond 2026, appear overly optimistic and disconnected from reality. The International TV rights figures make little sense, given the global competition from other cricket leagues like the IPL.

“It’s unlikely The Hundred will attract the necessary international audience to justify these inflated numbers,” Modi wrote on X.

The ECB’s #financial projections for The #Hundred, particularly beyond 2026, appear overly #optimistic and disconnected from reality. The #International #TV #rights figures make little sense, given the #global #competition from other #cricket #leagues like the #IPL. It’s… pic.twitter.com/cFzqtZF4mg

— Lalit Kumar Modi (@LalitKModi) September 26, 2024

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The Hundred, where each team plays 100 ball per innings in 65 minutes comprises eight teams — Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire.

In fact, Modi, who had wanted to buy out the ‘The Hundred’ for US$ 1 billion for perpetuity but ECB wasn’t interested, busted the cricket board’s ambitious claims.

“Domestically, while an increase in TV rights from GBP 54 million to GBP 85 million is plausible, the optimism around sponsorship post-2027 is far-fetched.

“The ECB’s hope for sustained sponsorship growth into 2029-30 seems more like wishful thinking than a realistic forecast,” said the former BCCI vice-president.

Modi then explained why his “baby” IPL’s revenue generation with media rights of US$ 6.2 billion is a case of 16 years of sustained growth.

“Even giving them the benefit for 2027-28, there’s no solid basis to expect sustained revenue growth at the scale predicted. The ECB’s optimism pales in comparison to the IPL, where teams are valued at US$ 1 billion based on 16 years of performance.

“Per my analysis The Hundred’s teams are projected to be worth a mere GBP 5 million to GBP 25 million in the best-case scenario in my MOST CONSIDERED VIEW, with Manchester maxing out at GBP 8.5 million.”

In fact, Modi claimed that ‘The Hundred’ can’t even match the revenue generated by the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

“Worse still, ‘The Hundred’ struggles to match even the Caribbean Premier League’s profitability, a sobering indication of its financial frailty.

“The Hundred appears to be on shaky financial ground, with projections that fail to inspire confidence in its long-term viability as these look dangerously overambitious and unsustainable,” he further stated.

With PTI inputs