Hundred auction: Welsh Fire spend big, Coles lands £390k contract Sport Business Welsh Fire were the big spenders in the morning session of The Hundred auction, splashing £540,000 on Joe Root and Jordan Cox. Wicket-keeper-batter Cox – who was the leading run scorer in last year’s Hundred competition – fetched the highest price before the lunch break, being snapped up by the Cardiff-based franchise for £300,000. Former [...]
Hundred auction: Wong and Cortneen-Coleman get 700 per cent pay rises Sport Business Rising stars of English cricket Dani Gibson, Issy Wong and Tilly Cortneen-Coleman have cashed in after attracting some of the biggest bids in the inaugural auction for The Hundred. Sunrisers Leeds secured the signing of all-rounder Gibson, 24, for £190,000, making her the most expensive Englishwoman in Britain’s first auction in a major sport. Pace [...]
Harry Kane-endorsed Skechers to sponsor Tom Brady-backed cricket team Sport Business Harry Kane-endorsed footwear brand Skechers is expanding into cricket as the main sponsor of the Tom Brady-backed Hundred franchise Birmingham Phoenix. Skechers will replace Butterkist in the prime front-of-shirt position for the men’s and women’s Birmingham Phoenix teams as The Hundred enters a new era this year. Following the acquisition of stakes in all eight [...]
Hundred cricket stake sales help Glamorgan clear debts March 2, 2026 Glamorgan’s sale of a stake in The Hundred franchise Welsh Fire has wiped the county cricket club’s debts, despite making a loss last year. The England and Wales Cricket Board sold eight minority stakes in eight Hundred franchises, handing the majority stakes to host counties. Glamorgan’s divestment saw them enter into a 50-50 partnership with [...]
Emirates boss on Arsenal stadium, leaving F1 and NBA Europe February 26, 2026 Matt Hardy talks sponsorship and strategy with the executive vice president of corporate communications, marketing and brand at global airline Emirates. At the end of the Premier League season 11 teams will be forced to change their front-of-shirt sponsor and, for some sides, the brand on their strip is synonymous with a particular era of [...]
Sport’s overreachers like Sussex and Leicester are guilty of hope not greed February 12, 2026 As long as sport’s governing bodies and regulators reward risk over restraint, the cycle of boom, bust, sanction, repeat will continue, writes Ed Warner. First the disclaimer: I live in Sussex and although its county side isn’t my first cricketing love – that “honour” belongs to Middlesex CCC – I’ve enjoyed days at Hove’s County [...]
Cricket lawmakers MCC relax bat rules amid worldwide run on willow February 3, 2026 The soaring cost of English willow has forced cricket’s lawmakers the MCC to rewrite their rule book and allow the use of previously-banned laminated bats. Top-of-the-range Grade 1 bats have more than doubled in price to around £1,000 over the last decade, fuelling fears that swathes of would-be cricketers are being priced out. Those concerns [...]
Sussex CCC forced to prove financial stability after ECB loan February 2, 2026 Sussex County Cricket Club will need to prove their financial stability to the England and Wales Cricket Board after entering into an agreement with cricket’s governing body. The three-year financial framework agreement will see the county receive a points deduction ahead of the 2026 season, a suspended fine of £100,000, and a further suspended points [...]
Tottenham chiefs lobby Uefa to increase Champions League squad size January 28, 2026 Tottenham Hotspur are lobbying Uefa to increase Champions League squad sizes after Thomas Frank was forced to drop Mathys Tel for the second time this season. Tel, who joined the club in a £30m deal last summer, was cut from Tottenham’s squad before last week’s 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund to enable Dominic Solanke’s return [...]
England cricket chiefs refusing to let counties blow Hundred cash on wages January 21, 2026 The England and Wales Cricket Board is at loggerheads with a number of counties who are growing increasingly frustrated at delays in accessing the proceeds from the £520m sale of stakes in the eight Hundred franchises last year. While the ECB have already distributed tens of millions of pounds from the sale to counties with [...]