Analysis
The BCCI’s Ouroboros economy
Indian cricket has never looked richer. The money now gathers around the properties that draw time and value away from bilateral cricket.
IPL
Reportage
Cricket’s banker: How A&W came to price the IPL
A&W Capital is registered in London, runs out of Mumbai and is now expanding its reach to New York. Since 2021, it has been in the room for every major cricket deal. You have probably not heard of it. That, very much, is the point.
Reportage
From S Tendehar to the ICC: Cricket’s long hunt for its own game
For nearly four decades, cricket has chased a digital mirror worthy of its devotion. Time and again, it has come close, only to misplace the moment. Now, the ICC believes it has finally assembled the pieces. What waits beyond that belief is the hard part.
Reportage
The Rajasthan Royals sale: five weeks on, and a new offer
Last month, word circulated that a consortium led by Kal Somani had secured the Rajasthan Royals for $1.63 billion. No party to the transaction has confirmed it. The lead bidder is still assembling capital, even as a rival consortium submitted a binding offer.
Reportage
The money behind the money: Inside the RCB fundraise
Three weeks after Diageo sold Royal Challengers Bengaluru for $1.78 billion, the consortium that bought it is still raising the funds. The State of Play reveals how, and who is being asked to write the cheques.
Reportage
Inside the $1.78 billion deal no one saw coming
How the Aditya Birla Group, David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, the Times of India Group, and Blackstone’s BXPE Fund swooped in to clinch Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Analysis
The $3.41 billion week that redrew the IPL
Two exits worth $3.41 billion have reset what an IPL franchise is worth, ushered in a new class of owners, and raised fresh questions about media rights and risk
Reportage
The Swede in the Room
EQT has spent nearly two decades buying IT companies and fertility clinics in India. Now it wants a cricket team. Royal Challengers Bengaluru, by most accounts, is where its money is going on March 16.
Reportage
RCB and RR sales: Everyone Is Talking To Everyone
Binding bids are due March 16. Due diligence has uncovered ownership, tax and operating complications absent from the sellers’ headline pitches.
Reportage
Google’s longest game
Google has spent fifteen years embedding itself into cricket's ecosystem: as a platform, a sponsor, a rights-market observer, and now a kingmaker. The sport's two biggest auctions arrive in 2027. The groundwork is already laid.
Reportage
The Rajasthan Royals sale: Why sellers are watching RCB closely
The RCB and RR sales are now entangled, with overlapping bidders, shifting timelines, as the Royals consider waiting for Diageo to set RCB’s price.
Reportage
Royal Challengers Bengaluru attracts $1.8 billion bid as nine parties compete
The State of Play can reveal the complete list of bidders for both franchises as RCB narrows the field and Rajasthan Royals move towards binding bids