English cricket, for so long run by the well-heeled and played by the privately-educated, is no longer the sole province of the blazer brigade. Only at the half-way stage, the sale of stakes in each of the eight men’s and women’s teams that make up the Hundred, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s flagship competition, has already secured enough riches to permanently alter the complexion of the domestic game.

Never mind the lounge suits and tailored jackets so beloved of Lord’s; after a £280 million scramble that has delivered eye-watering investment from the likes of NFL legend Tom Brady, the chief executives of Microsoft and Google, and India’s super-rich Ambani family, the world of English cricket is about to be turned on its head, if not sartorially then certainly in every other sense.

By the time the dust finally settles, as it will once the remaining four franchises are sold next week, officials who originally anticipated raising about £350 million from the sale of a 49 per cent stake in each Hundred franchise will be contemplating a windfall of up to £800 million. Not bad for a competition consistently accused of overestimating its own worth since its inception in 2021.

But given that 51 per cent of each franchise will remain with the host club, which will able to keep or dispose of it as it sees fit, what exactly are these big-name investors getting for their money? 

In a word, history: the prestige that accompanies a connection with storied venues like Lord’s, the Oval and Edgbaston. It is what the new money men and women do with that history – how effectively they are able to market and monetise it through broadcast rights, ticketing and expansion – that will determine the wisdom or otherwise of their extraordinary outlay.

The process will be challenging, no doubt, with a long-term increase in the number of teams and games perhaps the only way forward. Evolution of that nature will involve overcoming a variety of hurdles, not least logistically, yet it would seem foolhardy to bet against a cast of players with almost limitless wealth and expertise at their disposal.

Few know more about building a sporting dynasty than Brady, who spent two decades at quarterback for the New England Patriots, with whom he won all but one of his seven Super Bowl titles. 

The 47-year-old is a minority investor in Knighthead Capital Management, a New York-based private equity firm that acquired a controlling stake in League One football club Birmingham City in 2023 through Shelby Companies Limited. 

Sam Billings in action at the Oval in 2021. India’s super wealthy Ambani family made a projected £60 million investment in the Oval Invincibles team in this week’s Hundred auction

Kim and Khloe Kardashian were part of a stellar guest list at the wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Mumbai last summer. Anant’s father, Mukesh, is India’s richest person

Knighthead committed to paying about £40 million for a 49 per cent stake in Birmingham Phoenix on the first day of bidding on Thursday, reportedly edging out CVC Capital Partners, the American private equity company that once owned Formula One. 

It raises the intriguing prospect of Brady, whose net worth has been estimated at about $300 million (£242 million), occupying a place in the posh seats at Edgbaston, just as he has on several occasions at St Andrew’s.

But even Brady’s wealth is eclipsed by that of India’s Ambani family, who made a  projected £60 million investment in the Oval Invincibles, the tournament’s reigning champions, through Reliance Industries Ltd on the same day.

Reliance is chaired and run by Mukesh Ambani, whose estimated worth of £75 billion makes the 67-year-old the wealthiest person in India and the ninth richest individual in the world. 

The Ambanis also own Mumbai Indians, the most valuable franchise in the Indian Premier League – itself a multi-billion dollar business – as well as teams in Twenty20 leagues in the United States, United Arab Emirates and South Africa.

In short, the family’s involvement in the Hundred is a big deal – in every possible sense of the phrase.

Last summer, when Anant Ambani, Mukesh’s 29-year-old son, married the healthcare heiress Radhika Merchant in Mumbai, the lavish celebrations lasted six days. The  nuptials, which cost hundreds of millions, were the culmination of a barely less opulent build-up that included a jungle-themed safari and a star-studded Mediterranean cruise. 

Guests? They had them. Kim and Khloe Kardashian. Priyanka Chopra and her husband Nick Jonas. Half of Bollywood. A pair of former British prime ministers in Boris Johnson and Tony Blair. Mike Tyson. The American actor and wrestler John Cena. Models, billionaire businessmen, and even a brief appearance by the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

Billionaire Anant Ambani, left, tied the knot with Merchant, the daughter of a wealthy pharmaceutical mogul, in a traditional Hindu ceremony in Mumbai 

Mukesh Ambani at the World Economic Forum in 2017. The wealth of the 67-year-old, whose firm Reliance Industries made a successful bid for the Oval Invincibles, is estimated at £75bn

Shanaya Kapoor was another high-profile attendee at Anant Ambani’s wedding celebrations, which lasted six days and cost hundreds of millions

The pre-wedding celebrations included performances by Rihanna and Katy Perry, a DJ set by David Guetta, and a surprise show by the Backstreet Boys. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg pitched up, as did Saif Ali Khan and his wife Kareena Kapoor.

Such, by extension, is the company that English cricket suddenly finds itself in – and that is before we even consider the most jaw-dropping of the four deals so far. 

That came on Friday, when a consortium of tech billionaires including the chief executives of Microsoft and Google agreed to pay a king’s ransom for a stake in Lord’s-based London Spirit. 

The group of Silicon Valley big-hitters, led by Nikesh Arora, head of the global cyber-security company Palo Alto, and supported by a trio of fellow CEOs in Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, secured an agreement worth £145 million.  

The deal, a reflection of the prestige associated with a ground known as ‘the home of cricket’, was reached only after a three-hour bidding war with Sanjiv Goenka, billionaire owner of the IPL team Lucknow Super Giants. 

Also vying for the tournament’s pièce de résistance were two global investment firms with interests in Premier League football: Lancer Capital, chaired by Avram Glazer, the Manchester United co-chairman and director, and Cain International, headed by Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein and backed by Todd Boehly, the Stamford Bridge club’s joint-owner.

‘All those we spoke to were so eager to be a part of what we do, and it is a huge credit to everybody at Lord’s that there has been this remarkable interest,’ said Mark Nicholas, chair of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the owner of Lord’s.

‘[The size of the deal] shows what we as members have always known: our club is special. It’s why people want to be involved with us.’

Nikesh Arora, head of the global cyber-security company Palo Alto, led a consortium of tech entrepreneurs that secured an agreement worth £145 million for London Spirit

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, left, seen here talking to Elon Musk at the inauguration of President Donald Trump last month, was also part of the group led by Arora 

Satya Nadella speaks at an event at London’s Chatham House last year. The Microsoft CEO is  likewise part of the consortium that secured Lord’s-based London Spirit

The kudos conferred by Lord’s, relative to other venues, was emphasised when Welsh Fire later went to the Indian-American entrepreneur Sanjay Govil, for a relatively modest £35-40 million.

Govil also owns the Washington Freedom, a Major League Cricket team based in the US capital that won the league last season under the stewardship of Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain.

Govil’s evident passion for the game is understood to have won hearts and minds at Glamorgan, Welsh Fire’s host county, from the outset of the bidding process, although his victory was sealed simply by submitting the higher of two sealed bids.  

The tycoon, who saw off Capri International, another group that holds international interests in the game, is the founder and chairman of Infinite Computer Solutions, a global technology services firm, and Zyter, a digital health services company.

The auction process will continue in the coming days with the sale of the four remaining teams, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Trent Rockets and Southern Brave. 

For all the understandable excitement surrounding the deals, nothing is signed and sealed yet. Each of the eight preferred bidders will enter into an eight-week exclusivity period before the sales are formally ratified in late spring.

Yet the ramifications for the English game, both at county and grassroots level, are profound. Cricket’s windfall will be shared between the recreational game, which will receive 10 per cent, and the 18 first-class counties and MCC, which will receive the remainder.

It is an extraordinary influx of cash and, for all the accusations that the England and Wales Cricket Board has sold the sport’s soul, the platform is now there for renewal and revitalisation; for greater investment in school cricket and improved facilities and opportunities at recreational level.

The Hundred auction represents a unique opportunity; like the sport’s high-profile investors, the game must extract maximum value from it.