 "Explained: Why Lalit Modi has called ECB's 'The Hundred' a 'ponzi scheme'")
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had recently decided to make teams in ‘The Hundred’ open to private investment, hoping to attract the attention of those who own teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) among others.
The ECB was even open to franchises in their flagship limited-overs league, in which an innings comprises exactly 100 deliveries, getting renamed even if the investors acquired a minority stake in the side.
The board was hopeful of the move making ‘The Hundred’ a more financially secure tournament going forward and attracting more eyeballs from around the globe, especially the cricket-mad nation that is India.
Read | Why is ECB selling stakes in 'The Hundred' and who are the potential buyers?
Among the IPL franchises the board is hopeful of an investment from is five-time champions Mumbai Indians, with the Ambani family that owns the team reportedly eyeing the Lord’s-based London Spirit team.
IPL franchise owners have spread their wings overseas and acquired teams in leagues such as the Caribbean Premier League, SA20 as well as the International League T20, and the ECB was hopeful that some of their franchises also coming under the influence of the world’s biggest T20 league.
Indian businessman and former cricket administrator Lalit Modi, who helped conceptualise and found the massively successful IPL in 2008, doesn’t buy the idea of ‘The Hundred’ being a financially successful league, labelling it a “big fat Ponzi scheme” .
“My concern now is that they are trying to lure current @iplt20 owners into this non-starter league and building a hype around it that has no justification or guarantees on numbers. Basically a big fat #ponzischeme,” Modi, who had recently offered to buy ‘The Hundred’, had said.
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Why Modi has described ‘The Hundred’ as a ‘big fat Ponzi scheme’
Modi, who had also served as BCCI vice-president and was the IPL commissioner from 2008 to 2010, did not make a casual observation while dismissing ECB’s financial projections as one that was “disconnected from reality”.
The 60-year-old instead took to microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) to clarify why he thought ‘The Hundred’ was nowhere close to being the successful model that the IPL is, providing data for the same.
“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,” Modi wrote in his post.
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
Modi added that the IPL had delivered consistently over a period of 16 years, which has led to its teams being valued at a billion dollars and the league gaining a following all over the world, and not just in India. In his estimation, even the most valuable of ‘The Hundred’ franchise, could be valued at a fraction of the amount that IPL teams command.
“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," he added.
Modi went on to state that the Caribbean Premier League was financially more successful than ‘The Hundred’.
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