A consortium of US-based Indian techies has won the bid to own 49% of The Hundred's Lord's franchise London Spirit.  

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, Times Internet Limited vice chairman Satyan Gajwani, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Silverlake Technology CEO Egon Durban, Sequoia's Jim Goetz, and two others are part of the consortium that participated in an e-auction process on Friday to grab the franchise.

Sources say the US-led consortium's winning bid stood at £295 million. Arora, Pichai, and Narayen are known to be big cricket fans, while Nadella co-owns Major League Cricket's (MLC) franchise Seattle Orcas, and Gajwani owns and runs Willow TV, cricket's biggest streaming platform in the west, as well as the Cricbuzz website.

£295 million is the 100% bid value, of which the consortium will pay 49%. The remaining 51% will remain with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as part of The Hundred's business model.

In a separate bidding process, MLC franchise Washington Freedom won the Cardiff franchise for £65 million.

The Hundred introduces an innovative twist to cricket with its 100-ball format. Each match sees a single innings of 100 balls, with the opening 25 balls designated as a Powerplay. A unique aspect of the game is the bowling format: captains have the flexibility to choose whether a bowler will deliver 5 or 10 consecutive balls in a spell. However, each bowler is capped at a maximum of 20 balls per match, and the fielding side switches ends after every 10 balls, adding another strategic layer to the contest.

The competition features eight teams—Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets, and Welsh Fire. Each squad is composed of 15 players, which can include up to 4 overseas players, ensuring a blend of local and international talent.