"He wanted to buy the competition for a billion" - ECB hits back at Lalit Modi for calling The Hundred a "big fat Ponzi scheme"

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Richard Gould has hit back at IPL founder and fugitive businessman Lalit Modi for calling the board's flagship competition, The Hundred, a "big fat Ponzi scheme" in a post on X.

Modi based his remark on what he called "overly optimistic and disconnected from reality" financial projections for the tournament after 2026 in a separate statement. On the X post on Friday (September 27), he said he was concerned about the ECB luring Indian owners to invest in the "non-starter" competition based on unjustified numbers.

Gould, in turn, brushed aside the remarks as personal opinion and pointed to Modi's old comments about buying The Hundred, saying "No thank you" to that.

"We see the amount of interest, not just in the Hundred, but in English cricket, both internally and globally,” Gould was quoted as saying on Test Match Special by The Telegraph.

“I don’t recognise his particular comments. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that he had an article in the Telegraph saying he wanted to buy the competition for a billion [pounds]… so. No thank you. When you are in these investment processes, it is all about opinions.

"We’ve had incredible levels of interest. We have 100 or so interested parties, which is a huge number. It’s steady as she goes, we take nothing for granted, there is a really good process that is being run.”

Modi in the same X post also said his billion-dollar offer was for the "tournament in perpetuity" with the plan to redo it in T20 format and take it away from the ECB.

Here are his exact comments:

"Want to clarify about my billion dollar offer. It was to buyout the tournament in perpetuity and the idea was to redo it as a T20 tournament. Not another new format the global audience have ZERO idea about. Secondly to unbundle it from the ECB media rights. Thirdly 100 percent ownership. Fourthly distance from the struggling @thehundred competition. Which comes with its own baggage.

"My concern now is that they are trying to lure current @iplt20 owners into this non starter league and building a hype around it that has no justification or guarantees on numbers. Basically a big fat #ponzischeme."

The ECB's documents to ramp up interest in The Hundred franchises claim that domestic TV rights will rise from an annual £54m (₹604 crore) to £85m (₹951 core) from 2029. It also predicts the current £200,000 (₹2.2 crore) per year broadcast rights in North America will jump to £15m (₹168 crore) by 2030.

Lalit Modi responds back to ECB's Gould

Soon after The Telegraph article carrying Gould's comments came out, Modi made another post on X, saying he'll publicly post his calculations and "proposal made to the ECB" for everyone to see. He wrote:

"I will put out the proposal made to the #ecb and copy of the same to you all with a full comparison of the two. The #ecb were or are concerned of expanding then they should become realistic"

The Hundred has seen wide interest in the impending privatization of its franchises, including from IPL franchises Lucknow Super Giants and Rajasthan Royals and Wrexham A.F.C. owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.