Northern Chargers sale clears Yorkshire debts – Colin Graves

Yorkshire chair Colin Graves has said he was “staggered” by the fee in the sale of Headingley-based Hundred franchise Northern Superchargers.

Last month the Sun Group, owners of Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad, agreed a deal to pay just over £100m for a 100% stake.

Graves said the county, which is in over £20m of debt, will receive “somewhere in the region of £50m” when the deal is completed later this month.

Of the eight Hundred sides, the Superchargers are the sixth to secure investment but the only one to sell up entirely.

“The investors have paid a hell of a lot of money for the teams they are buying into,” Graves told BBC Look North.

“It’s staggering the amount, I knew it was valuable but not that valuable.

“That is great for cricket because 20% of that money is going into the recreational game, so that is going to help the grassroots.”

He added: “We would have enough money to clear the debts, that would be priority number one. Number two, we are looking at how we protect the rest of the money and look at how to invest it for the good of the club.

“We’re in a good position now and I want to make sure Yorkshire never gets into that position again.”

The six sales of Hundred franchises has totalled around £466m, the majority of which will be split among the 18 first-class counties, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the recreational game.

Graves was chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board when The Hundred format was invented.

He says that the recent investments show that the ECB were right to pursue a new approach.

“A lot of people were anti The Hundred when we launched it. It took us two and a half years to convince the county stakeholders to allow us to do it,” he said.

“I remember going to a DCMS [Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee] meeting and getting grilled about why we were doing it and it was going to kill cricket… Where we are today I think it’s proven it was the right thing.”