English cricket raised more than £100 million on the first day of the Hundred franchise sale after stakes were sold to Asia’s richest family and the Tom Brady-backed American investment fund that owns Birmingham City.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is selling its 49 per cent stake in each of the eight Hundred teams. Oval Invincibles were the first team sold, with the Ambanis, who own Reliance Industries and Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians, winning the auction.

The franchise was valued at £123 million and the Ambanis have bought a 49 per cent stake, partnering with Surrey CCC, meaning around £61 million will be distributed in the English game as a result.

Next to be sold were Edgbaston-based Birmingham Phoenix, who are understood to have been bought by Knighthead Capital, which has owned Birmingham City alongside Brady, the NFL legend, since 2023.

The host county of each Hundred franchise retain 51 per cent to do what they please with: keep it, or sell some or all of it. Warwickshire are understood to have kept hold of their 51 per cent, with the Birmingham franchise valued at a little over £80 million, which means around £40 million goes to the English game.

On Friday, Lord’s-based London Spirit and Cardiff’s Welsh Fire will be sold. Spirit are expected to fetch the highest price of the eight teams, with four potential investors in the running. They are: Manchester United co-chairman Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital; Cain International, which is led by Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein and backed by the football club’s joint-owner, Todd Boehly; Sanjiv Goenka, owner of IPL team Lucknow Super Giants; a Silicon Valley consortium including Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe CEO), Egon Durban (Silver Lake CEO) and led by Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto CEO).

The Silicon Valley group were beaten to the Oval team by the Ambanis. So were CVC Capital Partners, the private investment firm that has a share in the Six Nations among other investments. CVC was also in the mix to buy Birmingham Phoenix.

The winning bidders now enter a six-week period of exclusivity with the host venue and ECB to thrash out the details. The 2025 Hundred will largely be unaffected but the 2026 edition is likely to look and feel markedly different, including in the branding and names of teams.

Mumbai Indians have won five of the 17 IPL seasons, making them the joint-most successful franchise. Their brand has already spread to franchise competitions beyond the IPL, with teams in South Africa’s SA20 (MI Cape Town), UAE’s ILT20 (MI Emirates), the Major League Cricket (MI New York) in the United States, and India’s Women’s Premier League.

Mumbai’s tycoon owner is Mukesh Ambani, who was valued at £119.5 billion last year. The Ambanis will now enter into a partnership with Surrey. It is understood that powerbrokers at Surrey have agreed to share cricketing control as part of the deal. They had initially been keen to retain control of all cricketing and branding matters, as part of their 51 per cent stake.

After London Spirit and Welsh Fire on Friday, Manchester Originals are due to be sold on Monday, Northern Superchargers on Tuesday, and Trent Rockets on Wednesday. The final team, Southampton-based Southern Brave, will be sold last. They are a unique case as their controlling county, Hampshire, are owned by GMR, the Indian co-owner of Delhi Capitals. GMR is the strong favourite to buy the ECB’s 49 per cent share.

Each host venue has taken at least two potential investors through to the final round. In the case of counties with two potential options in the final round, the investors table a final, binding bid. The highest wins. In the case of hosts who have taken more than two investors through to the final round, there is an auction between the three or four interested parties. Bids are placed in 15-minute intervals, until the highest wins. Each bid is binding.

The proceeds of the sale of the 49 per cent will be spread between the counties, the MCC and the recreational game. If the hosts sell any of their 51 per cent, they keep the majority of the proceeds, with 10 per cent going to the recreational game and 10 per cent spread between the other counties. The Raine Group and Deloitte, who have advised on the sale, will also receive fees.

ECB chairman Richard Thompson has previously said that the governing body does not want the sale of the Hundred to lead to an “IPL takeover” as is the case in the SA20, in which all six teams are owned by Indian franchises. The ECB is keen for around half of the Hundred teams to be owned by IPL teams.

At this stage, the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knights Riders, two of the most significant IPL teams who have also popped up in franchise leagues elsewhere, have withdrawn. This stems from a belief that the Hundred is overpriced, a frustration with an ECB sales process that has changed regularly, and difficulties with the “participation agreement”, key documentation that has been a bone of contention for a number of investors. CSK are unlikely to re-enter the process, but insiders believe that KKR could come back into contention next week.

Who are the Ambanis?

Last year, the rich and famous from across the world flooded to India for the different stages of the wedding of Anant Ambani to Radhika Merchant.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were among the guests and Rihanna performed at the event of the year, which became a definitive display of the Ambani family’s power and wealth. It is estimated to have cost around half a billion dollars.

Anant is the younger son of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire owner of Reliance Industries, whose businesses include energy, petrochemicals, retail, entertainment and mass media. This has made him the richest man in Asia and the ninth-richest in the world. In October last year the tycoon was valued at $119.5 billion [£95.87 billion]. And now, he and his family are part-owners of the Hundred franchise Oval Invincibles.

The Ambani family have been familiar to fans of cricket since 2008, when they bought Mumbai Indians, the joint-most successful team in the history of the Indian Premier League. The family business has since expanded to other T20 leagues, in Dubai, New York and Cape Town. They have added Oval Invincibles to their portfolio, although having purchased a 49 per cent share, they will not wield as much control in London as they do elsewhere. They will have to work alongside Surrey, English cricket’s wealthiest county.

Mukesh Ambani is 67 and has been married to his wife Nita since 1985. She is a prominent figure, alongside their eldest son Akash, in the running of the family’s cricket operations. Akash, who is three years older than Anant, has a twin sister, Isha.

As well as many other lavish properties around the world, the Ambanis own Stoke Park, the country club in Buckinghamshire, which they bought for £57 million in 2021.