Recent developments in the wake of privatizing The Hundred have picked up their pace as it has come to light that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has been pushing the IPL (Indian Premier League) franchises to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before accessing sensitive and internal information related to its finances.
Consequently, the ECB have hired Deloitte and Raine Group as the two agencies to fast-track the agenda at hand. Currently, both groups are undergoing discussions with IPL franchises regarding investments in the eight teams of The Hundred or the counties in concern. Hence, the goal has been to provide the Information Memorandum (IM) only after the IPL franchises sign the NDA.
For the unversed, IM is a document which carries all the financial information associated with details of a seller’s property. However, when it comes to the franchises of the IPL, the apex cricket governing body of India aka BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has never forced any owners to sign the NDA. Interestingly, the coveted IPL has already been going on for the last 17 years now.
“It’s a standard practice to require NDAs, given that the IM includes financial information,” an ECB spokesperson was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
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‘So you are in it for what? Is there a purpose?’ – Goenka on ECB’s NPA intentions
Furthermore, it was also reported that the IPL teams are currently studying the contents of the NDA to get a better understanding of the terms and conditions as intended by the English cricket board. In the same vein, Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka reflected on the procedure and was keen to know the real intention of the ECB behind the agreement. Goenka in particular was interested to find out whether the foreign board wanted to grow the sport or was it just related to brand value and impression.
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“(Signing) NDA is all right, you can do all that. But at the end of the day, how serious you are depends upon what the terms and conditions are. So you are in it for what? You are in it for your value to go out. You are in it for the love of the sport. You are in it to play a small role in developing the sport. And if you do not, if you cannot control that, or if you cannot guide that, then is there a purpose? I think it’s a question we need to ask ourselves. If you can, then, of course, it’s a different story,” said Sanjiv Goenka, the LSG team owner.