For decades, Indian cricket went to England to learn. Indian players travelled to county clubs to sharpen their skills, adapt to seam and swing, and understand the demands of English conditions. Today, the direction of influence is changing. Indian companies and IPL franchise owners are increasingly putting money into English cricket- buying teams, investing in infrastructure and gaining a foothold in a market that once shaped Indian cricket.
County cricket was once almost a rite of passage for ambitious Indian batters- the likes of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly all spent time in the county system. More recently, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Sai Sudharsan have taken the same route.
That relationship is now beginning to take a different currency in the form of capital and investment in the game. Several Indian corporate groups and IPL franchise owners are increasingly becoming investors, operators and owners inside English cricket.
The shift is not confined to a single competition either. It stretches from The Hundred to county cricket, from team operations to infrastructure and from ownership to the wider commercial ecosystem. For the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), this is shaping up like a financial transaction with consequences for the entire cricket pyramid.
The £500-million signal
Perhaps the best example is The Hundred tournament. The ECB’s sale of stakes in all eight Hundred teams attracted strategic investors and valued the franchises collectively at more than £975 million, with more than £500 million committed to the English and Welsh cricket ecosystem. The ECB said £50 million of that was earmarked specifically for grassroots cricket, while professional counties are also receiving money from the transactions.
Four IPL ownership groups are part of that new ownership structure. Reliance Industries, owner of Mumbai Indians, acquired 49 per cent of Oval Invincibles for about £60 million, with the franchise valued at £123 million. The team has since been rebranded MI London.
RPSG Group, owner of Lucknow Super Giants, acquired a 70 per cent stake in Manchester Originals in a transaction valuing the franchise at about £107 million. The team is now Manchester Super Giants. Sun TV Network, whose parent group owns Sunrisers Hyderabad, acquired 100 per cent of Northern Superchargers for £100.5 million. And GMR Group, co-owner of Delhi Capitals, bought 49 per cent of Southern Brave for about £50 million, according to AP.
Taken together, those four publicly reported Hundred transactions amount to more than £317 million of investment by Indian IPL-linked groups. That figure does not include GMR’s separate acquisition of Hampshire Cricket or other investments made by the owners after entering the English market.
The ECB has explicitly said the proceeds are being used across the professional and recreational game, while its financial statements show that more than £160 million of Hundred sale proceeds had already been paid to professional counties, allowing them to reduce debt, build reserves or invest in revenue-generating projects, meaning Indian capital entering a franchise competition is finding its way into the balance sheets of parts of English cricket far beyond the teams carrying the investment.
From owning a team to owning the ecosystem
GMR’s move is perhaps the clearest example of how this is evolving. In September 2024, India’s GMR Group initiated a phased acquisition of Hampshire Sport & Leisure Holdings, making Hampshire the first English county club to have overseas ownership. The landmark transaction includes the Utilita Bowl stadium, an adjacent golf course and a Hilton hotel, with full 100% ownership set to be finalised over a two-year rollout.
The group subsequently acquired a 49 per cent stake in Southern Brave, linking its county ownership to the Hundred franchise based at the Utilita Bowl. That creates a very different business proposition from simply buying a T20 team.
A franchise owner can monetise a season. A county owner has access to a venue, domestic competitions, hospitality, sponsorship, events, player development and a longer-term relationship with the local market.
The economics therefore start looking less like a sports-team investment and more like a multi-asset sports platform. That is precisely where India’s IPL ecosystem has developed considerable expertise.
Why England could benefit from the deal
The investment is arriving at a time when English cricket has a structural financial problem. The ECB says its commercial activities generate around £310 million a year, with approximately 75 per cent coming from broadcast rights. It reinvests those revenues into professional and recreational cricket, with the domestic professional game accounting for about 40 per cent of annual expenditure. However, those revenues are not evenly distributed across the calendar.
The ECB itself describes its finances as inherently cyclical because the value of overseas broadcast rights changes depending on which international teams visit England. India is particularly important in that equation.
The ECB’s latest financial statements provide an unusually direct indication of the value of the Indian team to English cricket. Its 2025/26 turnover increased to £409 million, with the board specifically attributing higher broadcast and ticketing revenues to India’s five-Test tour.
The ECB said the 2026 white-ball visit by India was expected to produce another strong revenue year, while it anticipates a loss in 2027 because there is no equivalent India tour. The data reveals how India is an important part of England’s international calendar.
India is also the box office
The commercial relationship works at the stadium level too. The ECB’s 2026 ticketing information shows multiple England-India fixtures selling out or approaching capacity across the summer, including sold-out T20 and ODI matches.
An India tour can lift hospitality, sponsorship exposure, broadcast audiences and international commercial interest. The ECB’s own accounts explicitly connect the India Test series with increased broadcast and ticketing revenues.
If that is anything to go by, India remains unusually valuable to an English cricket economy that is trying to maximise revenue from every high-profile international window. Moreover, the Indian investors arriving in The Hundred are effectively bringing another part of that commercial ecosystem with them: franchise experience built in a market where cricket has already been turned into a sophisticated year-round sports business.
The Hundred is becoming a bridge between two cricket economies
The ownership changes are also changing the nature of The Hundred itself. The ECB retains ownership of the central competition and has stressed that the private investment is into the eight teams rather than the host counties or venues. But the new strategic partners receive operational influence and bring expertise from global sport, media, technology and finance. That matters because The Hundred is still a relatively young product.
It was launched in 2021, but by 2025 more than 2.5 million people had attended matches across its first five years, including 203,000 people who attended their first cricket match. The women’s competition accounted for 1.5 million of those attendances.
The competition offers Indian investors a relatively young sports property with room to build a brand. For IPL owners accustomed to operating across leagues in India, South Africa, the UAE and the US, The Hundred can become another node in a global cricket network.
RPSG operates Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and Durban Super Giants in South Africa’s SA20; its Manchester franchise has now been brought under the Super Giants identity. Reliance has followed a similar multi-market model, connecting MI London with the wider Mumbai Indians portfolio.
The business opportunity is no longer restricted to what happens during The Hundred’s five-week window. It is about shared scouting, coaching, data, content, merchandising, sponsorship and fan communities across multiple competitions.
What does India get?
For the Indian investor, English cricket offers assets that are difficult to replicate from scratch- historic venues, established fan communities, premium sporting locations, a recognised domestic system and access to one of the world’s oldest cricket markets. The multi-club model can also create efficiencies.
A player who belongs to one franchise ecosystem can potentially be exposed to another. Coaches, analysts and support staff can move across markets. Content can be created for audiences in multiple countries. Sponsors can be offered a wider portfolio rather than a single team.
Not a one-way takeover
It would be too simplistic to describe the development as Indian money rescuing English cricket. The Hundred has attracted significant non-Indian capital too. London Spirit, for instance, went to a technology consortium involving investors linked to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadela, while Trent Rockets went to Cain International and Ares Management.
Nor does foreign ownership automatically solve the underlying problems of county cricket. English cricket still has to deal with attendance, participation, scheduling, player development and the difficult economics of running professional teams across multiple formats.
In fact, the distribution of Hundred proceeds has itself become part of that debate. Sussex, for example, has recently argued that counties without a strong Hundred home presence need alternative commercial opportunities, highlighting the uneven economics of the domestic system. So the Indian investment should be viewed as new capital entering an existing system, not as a substitute for fixing that system.
The bigger shift is in relationship dynamics
The India-England cricket relationship has also evolved beyond the traditional exchange of players and expertise. For decades, Indian cricketers travelled to England to play county cricket, using the competition to develop their technique and adapt to conditions that were different from those at home. That pathway still exists, but the commercial relationship has changed significantly.
Indian companies and IPL franchise owners are now investing in English cricket at the ownership and franchise level. Indian groups have acquired stakes in English teams, while IPL-linked owners have become part of the operating and governance structure of The Hundred. The ECB’s finances also underline the commercial importance of India’s cricket market. The board has raised significant funds through the sale of Hundred franchises, while the absence of an India tour from the 2027 calendar is expected to affect its financial position.
That makes India’s role in English cricket broader than that of a major audience or broadcast market. India’s tours remain an important source of demand for English venues, broadcasters and hospitality businesses, while Indian capital is increasingly entering the ownership and commercial structures of the game itself.
The change can be seen in the movement of people and money. Indian cricketers once travelled to England to strengthen their careers through county cricket. Today, English cricketers regularly travel in the opposite direction during March, April and May to play for Indian franchises in the IPL. At the same time, Indian businesses are increasingly establishing a commercial presence within the English game.
The relationship, therefore, is no longer defined simply by where players go to play cricket. It is increasingly shaped by where the money, audiences and ownership capital come from.