Bidders for stakes in English cricket's eight Hundred franchises will this week begin taking part in live auctions enabling them to submit binding offers at 15-minute intervals, Sky News has learnt. Sources said on Wednesday that rivals contesting for franchises including the Oval Invincibles and London Spirit would be allowed to table new offers on the condition that they were at least £3m higher than the previous highest bid.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) hopes the structure of the process will encourage a lucrative bidding war, with its 49% stake in the Oval Invincible the first to be sold on Thursday. Three further auctions, including that of London Spirit, will take place this week, with the remaining quartet to be auctioned next week.
Money blog: Netflix and Disney users could pay licence fee - even if they don't watch traditional TV. Insiders said the ECB hoped to be able to delay an announcement about the outcome until the latter part of next week. Losing bidders in each franchise may be given the opportunity to participate in the remaining processes, although the mechanics of such a scenario were unclear on Wednesday.
Silicon Valley execs in late bid to bowl over London Hundred cricket team. Josh Baker: Parents 'broken' at death of 20-year-old Worcestershire County cricketer. Plastic cricket balls for children withdrawn over high chemical level fears. People close to the process said they anticipated that the Ambani family, which owns the Mumbai Indians IPL team, was seen as the likeliest winner of the Oval Invincibles auction.
