ECB declines Lalit Modi's billion-dollar offer for 'The Hundred' to maintain good relation with BCCI - Reports

The England and Wales Cricket Board has rejected IPL‘s mastermind Lalit Modi’s billion-dollar offer to buy and restructure ECB‘s tournament ‘The Hundred’. Modi was banned by the BCCI for a lifetime in the year 2013 for serious misconduct and indiscipline. As per a report by Cricbuzz, Lalit Modi had promised ECB to privatize the tournament which will help the board to increase their revenue.

In his model to privatize ‘The Hundred’, Lalit Modi had suggested increasing the eight-team tournament to 10, privatizing the league with the least IPL involvement, and allocating 100 million purses for the players over ten years.

ECB refuses to sign deal with Lalit Modi over restructuring ‘The Hundred’

Lalit Modi’s representatives had a meeting with Vikram Banerjee, who is the director of operations of the England and Wales Cricket Board and also the de facto head of ‘The Hundred’ and chief executive officer Richard Gould. He made an offer to buy the league for ten years and also fund it through private investment.

As per a report by the British daily, ‘Telegraph’, the England and Wales Cricket Board is in no mood to sign a deal with Lalit Modi. ECB fears losing control over the season’s prime months and believes working with Modi will damage its relationship with the BCCI, hence they have no interest in selling the competition as a whole.

While speaking to ‘Telegraph’, Lalit Modi stated that he has lined up the investors who are willing to invest in ‘The Hundred’. Modi also told the ECB that they should convert the tournament into a proper 20-over tournament rather than playing it in a 100-ball format. He added that each season every franchise shall get a purse of 10 million dollars every season which will match the wages of players as equal to the Indian Premier League.

Indian Premier League teams such as Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad are also interested in investing in ‘The Hundred’. However, there is no proper confirmation about the news.

Following his conviction for financial irregularities, indiscipline, and “actions detrimental to the interest of the BCCI” by the BCCI’s disciplinary committee, Lalit Modi was banned by the organization in 2013. The primary charges made against Lalit Modi were bid-rigging at the 2010 franchise sale of two new teams. In addition, he was charged with selling internet and broadcasting rights without permission.

‘The Hundred’ consists of eight teams and is mainly a 20-over tournament. However, each over consists of five legal balls and only a total of 100 balls can be bowled per innings.

Lalit Modi was one of the main brains behind the start of the Indian Premier League. Modi made IPL a brand of Indian cricket wherein players from all over the world come out to play in India and also entertain the Indian crowd. The brand value of the Indian Premier League in the current scenario has seen an increase of 10x. The broadcast rights of the cash-rich league were sold for a whopping INR 48000 crore whereas, Australian pace Mitchell Starc received a price of INR 24.75 crore in the IPL 2024 auction.