The week in sport

The Hundred is worth millions, Ronaldo is 40, Shergar is (still) missing, City spend a fortune, and a fabulous new issue of PITCH

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Yorkshire have become the first team to agree to sell their entire stake in a Hundred team. The Sun Group, owners of Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad, have paid just over ￡100m for a 100% stake in Northern Superchargers, who are based at Yorkshire's home Headingley.

Superchargers are the sixth team to secure the investment, with the Sun Group the first to take full ownership of a franchise.

Last week, Surrey negotiated a ￡60m price with the owners of Mumbai Indians for a 49% stake in the Oval Invincibles, while keeping the 51% given to them by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Warwickshire agreed a 49% sale of Birmingham Phoenix to Birmingham City owners Knighthead Capital for ￡40m and Glamorgan sold the same stake in Welsh Fire to IT entrepreneur Sanjay Govil for ￡40m.

A price of ￡145m for 49% of Lord's-based London Spirit was agreed between MCC and a Silicon Valley consortium led by Nikesh Arora, while Lancashire became the first county to sell part of their share when agreeing a deal for 70% of the Originals with the owners of Lucknow Super Giants for around ￡81m.

Commenting in his excellent Substack SportInc, Ed Warner says;

“How then to deliver growth in value to justify such punchy purchase prices?

Currently tickets for The Hundred sell well, but at low prices and on the back of hefty marketing spend. Sky and the BBC have committed to a broadcast deal that supports the tournament and they need a backdrop of decently filled venues to burnish their TV product. Reports vary, but overall the competition seems to be losing the ECB a few tens of millions of pounds a season. The budget for player fees is being increased, but the world’s best cricketers are largely not in evidence, in part because the BCCI is blocking the participation of India’s stars.

If The Hundred is to grow in prestige, and hence value, it must attract the very best cricketing talent. This will enable ticket prices to be ratcheted upwards (albeit jeopardising the family appeal on which the current fanbase has been built) and, much more importantly, sizeable international broadcast deals to be struck.”

We watch with interest.

Ronaldo was 40 this week. Assuming he carries on for a bit, here are some things he could still achieve…

• playing in the 2026 World Cup - and returning home with the trophy, having recently said he would like to "win something else with the national team";
• netting 1,000 career goals - he currently has 923;
• reaching 250 Portugal caps - he has 217;
• and sharing the pitch with his son Cristiano Ronaldo Jr, who is 14 and plays for Al-Nassr's youth teams.

The Aga Khan, known in sport as a leading owner and breeder of race horses in the UK, France and Ireland, breeding Shergar, once the most famous and most valuable racehorse in the world, has died.

Shergar won the Derby at Epsom in 1981 by 10 lengths in the Aga Khan's emerald green racing silks with red epaulets but was kidnapped in Ireland (on this weekend 42 years ago) from the Ballymany Stud, near The Curragh, by masked gunmen and was never seen again.

The new issue of Pitch is out now. Including Harry Brook, Luke Littler, an amazing piece on How To Run A Lower League Football Club, an appreciation of Park Ji-Sung, a guide to the Alpine World Championships and much more.

GET YOUR COPY OF THE NEW PITCH HERE

Football Benchmark have published their analysis of the January transfer window. During this winter transfer window, the expenditure reached €1.46b in UEFA first divisions and the English Championship. This represents the highest winter spending in seven seasons, aligning with historical averages as winter spending reached 17% of summer expenditure. The total figure even surpasses the 2022/23 winter window following the FIFA World Cup when Chelsea FC alone spent over €300m.

Our friends at the Nightwatchman are running a back issue sale until February 16. Take advantage of this offer on some of the best timeless cricket writing and get 50% off all print and digital issues released before 2024 now. Click here for more details: https://www.thenightwatchman.net/news/the-nightwatchman-new-year-sale

‘Bent referee’ is a pretty common phrase thrown around in sport; particularly football. It’s essentially a lazy term of abuse hurled at a match official when fans feel they’re in some way being negatively discriminated against. But in the case of South America’s ‘man in the middle’ Byron Moreno; with some justification.

READ THE FULL STORY OF BYRON MORENO HERE.