The Hundred: Northern Superchargers auction resumes sale on Wednesday
2025-02-05
Category: sports

A share of Leeds-based Northern Superchargers will be up for grabs when sales of stakes in teams in The Hundred resume on Wednesday.Yorkshire, hosts of the franchise at Headingley, could become the second county to hand over a majority stake.BBC Sport has learned the owners of Indian Premier League sides Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru are among the interested parties, along with an unknown bidder from the United States.Stakes in five teams have been sold since auctions began last Thursday.A pause on Tuesday was designed to allow beaten bidders time to regroup.Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves has said the club, which is owned by members, must become a private structure in order to survive a financial crisis. It owes almost Â£15m to the Graves family trust. However, it has also been reported that the controversial plans to demutualise could be scrapped if the sale of its Hundred franchise raises enough money.After Superchargers will come the sale of a stake in Trent Rockets, with Southern Brave - likely to go to the co-owners of Delhi Capitals after their buyout of Hampshire - concluding the process next week.So far, the entire value of five teams - London Spirit, Oval Invincibles, Birmingham Phoenix, Welsh Fire and the Originals - has come to around Â£640m.Surrey negotiated a Â£60m price with the owners of Mumbai Indians for a 49% stake in the Invincibles, the county retaining the 51% share given to them by the England and Wales Cricket Board.That was followed by three similar deals. Warwickshire agreed a 49% sale of Birmingham Phoenix to Birmingham City owners Knighthead Capital for Â£40m and Glamorgan sold the same stake in Welsh Fire to IT entrepreneur Sanjay Govil for Â£40m.In between, a price of Â£145m for 49% of Lord's-based London Spirit was agreed between Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and a Silicon Valley consortium led by Nikesh Arora. The size of that deal confounded expectations at the ECB.Lancashire became the first county to sell part of their share, agreeing a deal for 70% of the Originals with the owners of Lucknow Super Giants for around Â£81m.The five sales come to a total of around Â£366m, the majority of which will be split among the 18 first-class counties, MCC and recreational game.All deals now enter an eight-week exclusivity period in order to finalise the partnerships.