by It wasn’t long ago that Surrey were very skeptical of The Hundred, concerned about how the tournament would affect the running of their successful business.
With control of the tournament moving away from the England & Wales Cricket Board and returning more to the host grounds, Surrey can see the potential for growth.
Under new plans being discussed, the eight host clubs will receive a 50 per cent stake in their franchise, giving them a windfall that threatens to widen the gap between trial pitches and smaller clubs. They will be able to earn income by selling their shares to private investors if they wish. If the ECB sells its capital, the money will be spread throughout the game.
For Surrey, this is a huge unexpected opportunity given the Oval’s historic name, but chairman Oli Slipper has a different vision. Surrey are lucky due to their £60m turnover, which in financial terms puts them alongside Premier League clubs such as Aston Villa, minus income from the Premier League’s vast television rights deals. That insulates them from the need to increase income quickly by selling their equity. Instead, the idea is to make the Oval’s Hundred team more recognizable in Surrey. The Oval Invincibles could become the Surrey Invincibles.
At 47, Slipper is young to be county president. Appointed last October, he replaced Richard Thompson when he left for the ECB. A former Surrey staffer who played second team cricket with Ben Hollioake, he is an Oval man through and through, but in business he is fully aware of the challenges of the game. He is chief executive of Pitch International, a media rights company that buys and sells broadcast deals for cricket and other sports, and acts for six of the 12 Test-playing nations. He understands the challenges faced by bilateral one-day and Test cricket in franchise leagues.
“The Hundred is a key component of the national television deal, which is cricket’s biggest funder, so The Hundred is here to stay. We have to accept it,” he tells Telegraph Sport. “The Hundred cannot sit still. We need to make sure it has the best players, the best budgets and that it is the ultimate white-ball event for cricket in this country.
“There are some things I would like to do. Currently the teams belong 100 percent to the ECB. A property title will be returned to the places. This is very important to us in Surrey. Then we can feel that it is our team. From a brand perspective, I hope we can brand it as a Surrey brand team and part of our cricket ecosystem. We sold 125,000 Hundred tickets last summer, but I’d like it to be something all members could get behind. “If we can make a few small adjustments to the ownership brand, then this can be an extremely important product for Surrey, not just the game as a whole.”
As Telegraph Sport revealed this week, the Hundred will expand to 10 teams in the future. There were meetings between the ECB and the counties last week to discuss the latest proposals, with Deloitte estimating the value of the competition at around £750m if the ECB decides to sell shares, which is its next planned stage of development.
“The game needs capital. Certain counties need investment. “We are luckier than most that short-term cash is not something we need right now,” says Slipper. “We could consider that we can fund the salaries to take the Hundred team to the next level, so that if investment is required, it will come from the ECB’s capital in these franchises or from other countries that might require some capital in the short term.
“If you sell your 50 percent, you are giving up your future annuities. Then you give up sources of income forever. For me, look at the challenges Premiership Rugby had. They sold important stakes to private capital, which then had to claim those income before the clubs themselves. I’m not opposed to the investment but I think we would be cautious about whether we need it right now, but other clubs might need some funding for the stadium and selling their equity gives them the opportunity to raise more capital without taking on more debt.
“There is broad agreement that 10 teams makes sense. I don’t think it affects the quality of the product in the field. I don’t think we’ll get to 10 very quickly. I think there will be a grading period. Then there is the issue of relegation or promotion because the idea is that the entire game will be played by Cien in that month of August.”
Slipper refers to the ECB’s plan to launch a second Cien division, with the eight below the main division playing the format in August with future potential for promotion and relegation. “It is the game that decides promotion and relegation or until we have information about the difference in value between a closed group and an open group. The game needs to see more data on what the values mean, we’re waiting for that,” Slipper said.
From his work with Pitch, he is aware that bilateral cricket faces challenges and that the ECB, like any other board, needs a back-up plan. “Franchise cricket is growing. I still firmly believe in bilateral cricket but we have to make it as relevant as possible. Certainly from a testing perspective there are only 4 or 5 very viable testing nations left in the world. “The rest will require some funding mechanism to ensure they continue to play and drive the growth of Test cricket.”
Slipper speaks before Surrey host a dinner for staff and players to celebrate winning a second successive county championship. With up to 19,500 members and many signing up for test tickets and championship cricket, the red ball game remains the focus of the club. “Many people forget that Test cricket is still by far the biggest revenue generator for the ECB. 100 per cent Test cricket does not exist without the regional championship. We need to ensure the championship is a vibrant product. We have had great commercial success in recent years. “It is a functional part of our business model and drives the Test Cricket agenda that is so important to the cricket economy in England and Wales.”
