At the posh end of Piccadilly, spitting distance from the shiny shoes and sharp suits that adorn the windows of the Jermyn Street outfitters, lies Matthew Wheeler’s office. Inside, hang two framed shirts, one belonging to the Gujarat Titans team, the Ahmedabad franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the other belonging to Gujarat Giants, the women’s equivalent.
When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) increased the number of IPL franchises by two and then when it decided to set up the Women’s Premier League, Wheeler’s company, A&W Capital, advised on the winning investments into the new Gujarat franchises. The private equity company CVC Capital Partners won the bid in the IPL, and the Adani group in the WPL.
Wheeler was in the room when the envelopes were opened and the winning bids announced. For CVC’s investment (roughly $750 million), it brought to an end a lengthy process, completing the first investment into the IPL by a European private equity company. Private investment, already such a growing part of the cricketing landscape in other parts of the world, is coming to English cricket, as surely as night follows day.
Wheeler is well placed to discuss this aspect of the game’s future, given his broad experiences. He was, briefly, a first-class cricketer (two games for Northamptonshire in 1985), before building a business career in sport. He was chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association between 2015 and 2019. Now, he occupies that niche space between sport and private investment, leveraging his company’s knowledge of India and sport.
“India has become a much easier place to do business but whenever you go outside your own market there are nuances,” he says. “It’s a great place, and if you love cricket an even better place. You can just feel the energy; the Indian economy grew by 7.8 per cent in the second quarter last year. I love the UK, but there’s no growth. From a business perspective, India is very exciting.
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“And the biggest sport in India is cricket. Kabaddi has a big audience but it’s a different audience and football has an audience of sorts, but it’s like when I went to Brazil for the first time and the MD [managing director] of our company there said, ‘What are the three biggest sports in Brazil? Football, football, football’. In India, it’s cricket, cricket, cricket.
“You don’t have to be a genius to work out that in India, the IPL is the thing: a huge, growing market; dominant sport; good commercials; limited teams. It’s very similar to American sports: no relegation; revenues pretty evenly split; well-balanced teams through auctions; deep talent pool. From a commercial and cricket point of view, it works.
“So I spent a while trying to convince investors in Europe of the IPL, and then worked with CVC specifically looking for opportunities. None of the franchises were for sale. Then in early 2021 the BCCI decided to sell two more. We did a lot of work around the future value of the media rights. The auction was a very well-run, very professional auction.”
The question, from an English perspective, is whether private investment into domestic cricket will happen here — where the 18 first-class counties hold sway, while the ECB own all eight teams in the Hundred — and what it will look like. “Private equity is not the answer to everything but what’s happened in the last few years is that private equity and individuals have started to invest in sport differently,” Wheeler says. “Previously, it was a trophy asset: rich man makes money, buys club, loses money.
“It’s become a sustainable business now, because TV revenues in particular, and revenues more generally, have grown. Now, investors — as opposed to trophy hunters — are interested. It doesn’t mean that private equity or private investment is the right thing in every case. There are many different models.
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“In West Indies they have effectively sold their league on a long-term lease to private enterprise, which in turn have sold franchises. Australia, and ECB, currently control the centre and teams with no private investment and there are various hybrid models in between. In India, BCCI is in control of the IPL 100 per cent, even though private money has bought franchises. What the right model is for the Hundred is something the ECB is working through right now.
“The first question to ask yourself is: why are we doing it? What’s the money for? If you’re raising money to invest in the future and turbo-charge growth, that’s great. If you’re doing it to strengthen the balance sheet, selling equity to pay off debt, that’s not great, although I understand why someone does that. But if you are just selling for a sugar rush, to get lots of players next year, that’s not a good use of funds. Don’t do that.
“As for the model, selling teams or the competition or the hybrid models, there’s no right and wrong answer. There are plenty of examples around the world of good and bad practice in sport’s ownership. There are many benefits but you’ve got to be aware of what you are opening the door to, because it will be a different dynamic.”
Before Christmas, there were a number of stories concerning Hampshire, and a possible buy-in from the owners of the Delhi Capitals IPL franchise. Is there an appetite from IPL franchises to invest in cricket here?
“Absolutely, there is,” Wheeler says. “They love their cricket, obviously. Their IPL teams are highly profitable now. There are deep connections and many of them spend time in England in the summers. So yes, there is a definite appetite.”
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Does Wheeler understand the fear among many county members of these potential changes, especially if the ECB doesn’t get it right? “Of course. Change is frightening isn’t it? I completely understand that. Change is sometimes necessary and to be fair to cricket it’s a 250-year-old sport that has constantly changed and reacted, and that is why it is still here today.
“There has been enough change for the sport to survive and thrive. You just have to think things through and you can’t have the tail wagging the dog because you as the rights holder have a much broader remit for the development for the sport than a franchise owner — a franchise, by the way, that is subject to an auction or draft system so doesn’t have any incentive to develop young cricketers.
“I very happily do business with smart people who invest sensibly but their job is to make money for their investors. That doesn’t mean it is bad for you. You do it to boost growth, and you have to be sure that what you’re doing is beneficial enough that a short-term sale becomes a long-term gain, and that’s a perfect partnership and very achievable. There needs to be an alignment of interests between the financial and the sporting.”
There is an old saying that pessimists sound clever and optimists make money. Wheeler, imbued with the optimism that permeates cricket in India, is nothing if not optimistic about the game, reckoning cricket is second only to football when it comes to a bright future.
“A friend of mine said to me recently that he had no doubt cricket was going to be a massively popular sport in 20 years’ time in England,” Wheeler says. “The question, he said, is what cricket will it be: IPL-style cricket or Test cricket? I think it can be both. There will be a balance, but a different balance. I’m certain in 20 years’ time, the Ashes will be as big, if not bigger, than it is now.
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“Women’s cricket is a massive opportunity. It’s coming super-fast and the sports that have the biggest opportunities there are football and cricket. India is a big part of that.
“The Hundred has been fantastic for women’s cricket. It’s a different audience. I have four girls in my life and we see a different crowd when we go to Wembley for the Lionesses.
“I am positive by nature and I feel we are grappling with good problems. I spent a lot of time in athletics, and it’s in a really tough situation. The sport is not perfect and there are challenges but you look at the growth and development in cricket and the opportunities are huge.
“I’m not negating we are in real flux, but there is so much opportunity. There are plenty of sports that would like to be dealing with the problems cricket has. How many times do you hear other sports say, ‘We need to invent the T20 of our sport?’ So the challenges are emerging out of really positive dynamics.
“India is going to be the world’s third-largest economy and cricket is the biggest sport in that. Let’s celebrate that and work out how to deal with that.”
