Hampshire land ‘groundbreaking’ £120m takeover from IPL group

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove hailed a “groundbreaking deal” to sell the club for £120 million to IPL owners and believes other counties will follow suit.

The GMR Group, co-owners of the Delhi Capitals IPL team, have completed a deal to buy Hampshire after nearly 12 months of talks, which were first revealed by Telegraph Sport last year. They will become the new owners of the Utilita Bowl stadium, hotel, golf course and Hampshire County Cricket Club.

Bransgrove will stay on as chairman for the next two years as part of a phased takeover to oversee a smooth transition to new owners, with money raised to be invested in the ground ahead of hosting an Ashes Test in 2027 as well as reducing debt.

The company acquiring Hampshire is Singapore-based GMR Global Private LTD, owned by a Dubai investment company on behalf of the family run GMR Group – a $6 billion business that owns airports, motorways and power stations in India and other parts of the world.

GMR are also long-standing investors in cricket, part-owning the Delhi Capitals IPL team, the Dubai Capitals in the ILT20, the Pretoria Capitals in the SA20 and a stake in the Seattle Orcas team from the America’s Major League Cricket Twenty20 tournament. They will acquire a majority stake in Hampshire with a view to completing 100 per cent ownership within two years.

“For English county cricket this is groundbreaking. We will not be the last to be owned off shore,” Bransgrove told Telegraph Sport.

“Anybody with a real perception of the game of cricket recognises the power of India. I relish the thought of being part of an international group because I see globalisation of the game happening. I think other counties will follow suit, it is just an inevitable change of the commercialisation of the game of cricket.”

‘This insulates Hampshire cricket’

One of Bransgrove’s first moves when taking over a bankrupt Hampshire in 2000 was to reconstitute the club from member-owned to private ownership, which has enabled them to negotiate with prospective buyers without having to consult members. Only two other counties – Durham and Northamptonshire – are privately owned but Bransgrove believes this will change and that will enable other clubs to negotiate new investment and potential ownership changes.

“We recognise trends early and are structured so we can react appropriately and move quickly,” he said. “We don’t need to get the support of a membership but we do communicate with our members. We regard them as valued customers and try to talk to them as regularly as possible and I will be writing to them today about what this can do for Hampshire cricket. It certainly insulates Hampshire cricket for a long time. My opinion is it also gives us a stronger hand to protect red ball cricket that us purists love but some people try to love over and above recognising what the trends are in the game.”

The Utilita Bowl will host an Ashes Test in 2027, cementing it as one of English cricket’s major venues. It is also home of the Southern Brave Hundred team and Tier One women’s team.

The England & Wales Cricket Board has started the process of selling 49 per cent stakes in each of the eight Hundred franchises. The other 51 per cent has been gifted to the host counties.

Recently it emerged the ECB had blocked any new owners of counties from gaining automatic access to the 51 per cent but Bransgrove says this made no difference to the talks with GMR because they began before the divvying up of the Hundred franchises was agreed between the ECB and counties.

“It has been a hard slog because we have had financial difficulties and difficulties with different administrations but this is the culmination of everything, it gives us true value and now a major part of an international business and cricket group. I don’t think we could be in a better place to be honest,” said Bransgrove.

He has always been a visionary and a moderniser at Hampshire and at times that led to friction with the ECB, notably when the governing body was chaired by Giles Clarke. But his methods have worked, turning Hampshire from an insolvent business playing at a ramshackle ground in Southampton to a Test match hosting modern venue at the Utilita Bowl. They have also retained a strong presence on the field, winning eight trophies under his chairmanship and finishing runners-up to Surrey in this summer’s championship.

‘We can’t pretend it’s still the 50s’

Bransgrove has always been a strong supporter of a city-based short format competition and believes the game has to modernise to protect its future.

“I am hoping that we will preserve red ball cricket but we can’t if the county chairs keep insisting on 14 four-day games a season. We have to use the money from these new competitions to protect a realistic version of the game. It is crazy to pretend this is still the 1950s,” he said.

“English cricket is so traditional and rather than recognise what has been happened to red ball cricket for a long time they clutch at new things to blame them for what was happening already. In fact the new things are there to try and rescue the game but because it does not fit with their particular view of the game it is blamed. Truth be told my favourite format is to sit in my room with my binoculars and watch a proper game of four day cricket unfold but I do recognise that for my son and my children’s children that is not going to float their boat.”

GMR have committed to protecting the pathway structures at Hampshire and investing in the game locally. “This is an exciting time for Hampshire Cricket, and I’d like to welcome GGPL to cricket in England and Wales. I am pleased to see their commitment to continuing to develop Hampshire’s cricket teams and pathways and enhance facilities at Utilita Bowl, and their respect for the traditions of the game in this country,” said Richard Gould, the chief executive of the ECB.

“This announcement also demonstrates the global interest in investing in cricket in England and Wales, and underlines the continuing appeal of county cricket.”

Rod Bransgrove, Hampshire chair, credited former player Kevin Pietersen, who played 104 Tests for England between 2005 and 2014, for playing a role in brokering the deal. “Kevin takes an ambassadorial role for GMR and we’ve certainly spoken to him once or twice,” Bransgrove said. “He’s been very interested in the potential for this because he knows the GMR culture, he knows our culture and he knows they’re very well suited to each other. “In that respect, yes, he has been involved.”