After Lalit Modi’s rant against the The Hundred, now England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief has hit back at the IPL founder. Richard Gould has now come to hit back over Modi’s comments about the hundred being ‘a big fat Ponzi scheme’. Furthermore, Modi also claimed that the ECB was ‘overly optimistic and disconnected from reality’ in their bid for the sale of the Hundred.
Taking to social media. Modi let out a long rant about the figures which predicted the high rise in potential investors all across the globe. His comments came after the sale of the eight teams opened recently with the belief that the sale would be over by the upcoming 2025 season. While the ECB also threw an air of caution that the sale of the teams could however be delayed.
ECB chief hits back at Lalit Modi
“We see the amount of interest, not just in the Hundred, but in English cricket, both internally and globally,” said Gould. “I don’t recognise his particular comments. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that he had an article in the Telegraph saying he wanted to buy the competition for a billion [pounds]… so. No thank you. When you are in these investment processes, it is all about opinions. We’ve had incredible levels of interest,” said ECB chief Richard Gould.
“We have 100 or so interested parties, which is a huge number. It’s steady as she goes, we take nothing for granted, there is a really good process that is being run,” Gould further added.
The ECB chief went on to claim that The Hundred has incredible interest all across the globe. Two years back it went on to refuse a sale of 75% of the tournament for a price of £300 million. It is believed that the England board wants the sale of the team teams to take place at a whooping price of £500 million.
“We hope that will deliver a really positive outcome. If it does, we are looking to use the money to underpin the county game for the next generation, the next 20-25 years. We will see. We are not taking anything for granted. There will be [low] amounts that we have in mind, that our stakeholders, the counties and the venues have in mind as well. It’s a significant process that we are doing through collaboration and mutual understanding. Everyone knows that the money that comes in, we want to use to protect and supercharge the game throughout our county network and beyond,” Gould concluded.
