Cricket’s dirty secret: Unpaid players, rogue officials and bad governance August 13, 2025 In many ways, these are heady days for cricket. A return to the Olympics in LA in 2028 promises to take a sport with pockets of fervent support to new audiences; The Hundred has shown the game’s appeal to deep-pocketed investors; and the recent series between England and India delivered thrills and spills in the [...]
Chanel chief Leena Nair joins Tech Titans investor group at London Spirit August 13, 2025 Chanel chief executive Leena Nair has joined the Tech Titans group of investors who now own 49 per cent of London Spirit. The British-Indian executive was at Lord’s last week for the first game of this year’s Hundred competition between Spirit and Oval Invincibles after reaching out to Nikesh Arora, the chief executive of Palo [...]
Birmingham Phoenix tee up Castore as Hundred teams ditch New Balance August 6, 2025 Birmingham Phoenix have agreed a kit deal with Castore for next season, with The Hundred’s long-term apparel supplier, New Balance, increasingly being phased out by the franchises that are under new ownership. City AM revealed last week that London Spirit are also dropping New Balance after the current campaign, with their new co-owners, Cricket Investor [...]
London Spirit captain hopes Hundred investment can close pay gap August 4, 2025 London Spirit captain Charlie Dean hopes that more investment into The Hundred can close the pay gap between the men’s and women’s competitions. Players in the women’s top bracket of this year’s edition of The Hundred are set to earn £65,000, a 30 per cent increase on last year, for a month of cricket. In [...]
Exclusive: OnlyFans signs up England cricket star Tymal Mills August 4, 2025 England international Tymal Mills has agreed a partnership with OnlyFans that will see him become the first big-name cricketer on the global content creator platform. Mills joins other athletes including tennis star Nick Kyrgios on the site, where he has promised to share behind-the-scenes content, analysis and one-to-one coaching advice. As part of the partnership, [...]
ECB hails ‘exciting new phase’ after six Hundred deals completed July 30, 2025 England and Wales Cricket Board chair Richard Thompson has welcomed “an exciting new phase” for cricket after confirming completion of the sale of six stakes in The Hundred franchises. The six deals formally finalised ahead of next week’s fifth season include London Spirit, Birmingham Phoenix, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Southern Brave and Welsh Fire. Despite [...]
London Spirit: Tech titans strike Nike kit deal in Hundred first July 30, 2025 London Spirit’s new part-owners, Silicon Valley-based consortium Cricket Investor Holdings, have agreed a kit deal with Nike for the Hundred franchise which will begin next year. The Nike deal is the first bespoke commercial contract secured by one of the Hundred teams, as sponsorship deals have previously been sold centrally by the England and Wales [...]
Fans and athletes both lose in sport’s endless entertainment loop July 24, 2025 New tournaments, expanding global championships, tours of dubious sporting merit and very little rest – isn’t it time we gave our athletes a break, asks Ed Warner? If only the world wasn’t spherical, maybe then we wouldn’t have lost the sporting seasons. As it is, summer bleeds from northern hemisphere to southern, which sends winter [...]
Oval Invincibles sale delayed due to unresolved issues, reports say July 22, 2025 Unresolved issues including the future name of the franchise have delayed completion of the sale of Oval Invincibles – and the flow of funds to hard-up counties – according to reports. The deal will see RISE Worldwide, a subsidiary of the Ambani family’s Reliance Industries, take 49 per cent ownership of the Oval Invincibles franchise [...]
County cricket faces viability questions, warns report July 15, 2025 County cricket faces “questions about its long-term viability” despite a looming £520m windfall from sales of stakes in the Hundred franchises, a new report has warned. The Leonard Curtis Cricket Finance Report, launched yesterday at the Oval, examines the financial health of domestic cricket in England and Wales. It found that central funding accounts for [...]