Goenka outbids an IPL team to acquire Manchester Originals for 107m

Sanjiv Goenka, the Kolkata-based owner of Lucknow Super Giants and Durban Super Giants, and the head of RPSG Group, has landed the Manchester Originals franchise in The Hundred tournament. The Lancashire-based franchise were led by Phil Salt, in the absence of regular national skipper Jos Buttler, last season of the 100-ball competition.

The exact value has not been revealed, but Cricbuzz understands that it is just over 100 million - precisely 107 million GBP. The valuation is virtually half of the price of London Spirit, which was sold to a consortium of the US-based tech billionaires, for 195 million GBP. Goenka had also strongly pursued the Lord's-based franchise before giving up. He now owns 49 percent of Originals.

It was not initially clear who the other contenders were, but the value was arrived at through e-auction, it is obvious that there were more than two rivals in the race. One presumed that the Glazer family, linked to Manchester United, would have been one of the candidates along with CVC Capital, but it has turned out that neither of them was in the race.

It has been mentioned that an IPL side was competing with Goenka and one more tech consortium was equally interested. Goenka finally won the race, beating the IPL team. The authorities were tightlipped on who the competing IPL rivals were. Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders were all in the initial list of interested parties who are believed to have backed out. Whether one of them has re-entered the fray is to be ascertained.

Out of the five teams sold so far - Oval Invincibles, Welsh Fire, London Spirit, Birmingham Phoenix and Manchester Originals - two have gone to the IPL owners - the Ambanis and Goenka. Three more are left - Nottingham-based Trent Rockets, Yorkshire-owned Northern Superchargers and Hampshire's Southern Brave. The SunRisers franchise is believed to be the favourites to pick up one of the teams. Delhi Capitals' GMR Group, having bought the Hampshire county, appear set to retain the Brave.

Goenka is known to be passionate about sports and had made a stunning billion dollar bid to bag the Lucknow franchise in the IPL franchise auction three years ago. At that time, his Rs 1090 crore bid was considered to be unrealistically high and out-of-the box. He had previously owned Pune SuperGiants which was in the IPL as an interim replacement side. Goenka now also owns a team in the Indian Super League (ISL).