The Daily Telegraph - Sport

Hampshire deal puts pressure on rest to cave in to Indian riches

Member-owned counties are wary of outside money but finances are biting and ECB cannot prop up clubs for ever

It is obvious why Hampshire are attracting investment from India, and they will not be a lone case. The Ageas Bowl is a diversifie­d business with a golf course, hotel and leisure facilities on site, as well as an internatio­nal cricket ground that will host an Ashes Test in 2027.

It also comes with a successful Hundred team, the Southern Brave, and that is the ticket to a potentiall­y huge windfall when equity is sold in the competitio­n. How that process happens is still to be decided but one suggestion is that the Hundred hosts will receive a 50 per cent share in a franchise to either sell or keep (the England and Wales Cricket Board will retain the other 50 per cent). It makes those clubs attractive investment opportunit­ies after years of being saddled with debt.

The Hundred counties are sitting on a pot of money and the value of Lord’s, the Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, and even Headingley, despite Yorkshire’s current problems, would eclipse Hampshire, given their names resonate across the cricket world far more.

Where Hampshire majority shareholde­r Rod Bransgrove has a distinct advantage in his discussion­s with the part-owners of the Delhi Capitals is that the county are not owned by their members.

There is nimbleness at Hampshire that others do not enjoy, because Bransgrove holds the power as majority owner. Durham and Northampto­nshire are the only others of the 18 counties no longer member-owned. Tim Bostock, the Durham chief executive, is confident his club can become Hundred hosts if the competitio­n is expanded and hopes to attract Saudi investment and exploit its links with Newcastle United. Durham have been reborn in recent years and are equipped to move quickly in times of investment opportunit­ies. County membership has fallen for years but remains a force within the game. It was the backlash from members and the pressure they exerted on county chairs that fought off changes to the championsh­ip recommende­d by the high-performanc­e review led by Sir Andrew Strauss 18 months ago. County members have been galvanised in recent years by the Cricket Supporters’ Associatio­n and at individual clubs, led most vociferous­ly by the Lancashire Action Group, which has battled hard with the club’s board over a variety of issues. Members generally want to protect red-ball cricket and are sceptical of outside investment. There are around 75,000 members across the 18 clubs, excluding MCC. It is inflated at Test grounds by those who use membership to buy internatio­nal tickets, and without that attraction, some of the smaller clubs will struggle to reach four-figure membership.

The majority of members see themselves as season-ticket holders, while a small, but vocal group, regard their role as owners and guardians of the club they support. The

Bransgrove was one of the first to recognise the potential of the IPL, which made him enemies

fact that relatively minor changes to the championsh­ip met such opposition 18 months ago suggests the fight over the Hundred will be tricky. “It is not easy, most counties are owned by a relatively modest number of members, some of whom want cricket to be like it was. It ain’t never going to be again,” Gordon Hollins, the outgoing chief executive of Somerset, told Telegraph Sport recently.

But finances are biting. Yorkshire are one of four clubs, it is thought, who have been advanced money by the ECB to tide them through the winter. On average, counties rely on the ECB for 47 per cent of their income, which rises to 60 per cent for some. With ECB broadcast money fixed until 2028 and huge costs of implementi­ng the recommenda­tions of the Independen­t Commission for Equity in Cricket

report, as well as cricket inflation (player salaries and ground investment), the game desperatel­y needs new money. The ECB cannot afford to prop up clubs, and the membership model will be under scrutiny like never before.

Bransgrove can do his own thing, and if he does sell his Hampshire stake, he will leave the club in a position unimaginab­le when he took over in the 1990s. He has done a tremendous job, lifting them alongside the establishe­d Test grounds, steering Hampshire from the brink of bankruptcy, building a ground that took time and patience to develop and recognisin­g the need for the club to move away from relying on cricket for income.

There have been tough times, with Bransgrove not always in favour at the ECB, particular­ly when it was chaired by Giles Clarke.

Bransgrove was one of the first in English cricket to recognise the potential of the Indian Premier League and that made him enemies at the time. There was a union with the Rajasthan Royals from 2010 to 2013 that was ahead of its time.

For Bransgrove to turn Hampshire into an asset now worth £100million is remarkable entreprene­urship and symbolic of cricket’s changing times.