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Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is reportedly looking to gain a stake in the Hundred tournament by bankrolling a ninth team to be added to the cricket franchise.
A deal to include a new Durham-based northeast team is expected to move quickly, according to a report by the UK daily The Times, with the team likely to be ready for competition by 2026 or 2027. Financial details of the reported investment remains unclear at this time.
In April, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that runs the Hundred started the process to secure private investment in the tournament by selling shares up to 49% in the teams. Host venues will control the remaining 51%, which they can choose to sell either in parts or completely.
With $925 billion in assets, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) already owns a stake in the Premier League outfit Newcastle United, increasing its stake in the football club from 80% to 85% in June.
If the deal goes through, this will mark PIF’s first major investment in cricket, although there have been previous indications that Saudi has been interested in the sport.
Last November, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia had shown interest in buying into cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL). Advisers to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly showed a preference to turning India’s domestic franchise into a holding company, with Saudi snapping up a $5 billion stake.
However, Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the country’s governing cricket body, shut down speculations of an overseas investment at the time.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
