England and Wales Cricket Board and Yorkshire. (Photo Source: Twitter)
In 2023, Rajasthan Royals were close to sealing Yorkshire’s ownership with a bid worth £25 million. The county club has been struggling for funds and that would have solved their problems. However, the deal collapsed after Colin Greaves returned to power in 2024 as the chair. After returning to his position, he called for private investors, which once again interested the 2008 IPL champions.
They proposed a deal again but through the mode of additional borrowing, as opposed to direct investment. It signifies that the £15 million debt of the club will not be cleared as they would still owe the amount Royals borrowed. Yorkshire refused the deal as they did not want to replace the debt with another one. However, the franchise has not given up and is still in talks to acquire the club.
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In the meantime two other corporates have joined the race, as the Sun Group, which owns Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL and Sunrisers Eastern Cape in SA20, has shown interest and offered £50 million to Yorkshire – twice of what the Royals offered initially. No deal has been finalised, however, as Yorkshire are still in talks with other interested parties.
One of them is the Goenka group which owns the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and Durban Super Giants in SA20. As per Wisden, they have not put a bid as the talks are ongoing. They were interested in acquiring Hampshire earlier but the GMR group, co-owner of Delhi Capitals, secured the deal with a £120 million offer.
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Meanwhile, apart from the club, the corporate that takes over Yorkshire will also own the Headingley Cricket Ground. A deal is expected to go through in the ongoing calendar year as several Indian businessmen have shown interest in acquiring county clubs and The Hundred franchises. England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have invited them to own stakes in The Hundred and the discussion for the same is still ongoing.