Cricket’s banker: How A&W came to price the IPL
A&W Capital is registered in London, operates from Mumbai and is expanding to New York. Since 2021, it has advised on nearly every major cricket transaction. You have probably not heard of it. That, very much, is the point.
On 25 May 1985, a 22-year-old seamer named Matthew Wheeler walked out at Grace Road for Northamptonshire against Leicestershire, into a world he assumed would define his life.
Wheeler went wicketless on debut. The next line never came. Two months later, against the touring Australians, he claimed his lone first-class wicket: Kepler Wessels edged, and Allan Lamb did the rest at slip. Wheeler never batted in either match. His numbers barely registered. Even then, the scorecard did not tell you everything.
Forty-one years later, Wheeler is at the centre of a different contest: the $1.78 billion acquisition of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by a consortium comprising David Blitzer, Aditya Birla Group, Times of India Group and Blackstone.
It is the largest disclosed franchise sale in Indian sport and cricket’s franchise era. It is also the latest and most prominent mandate for the advisory firm Wheeler runs.
Over the past five years, whenever an Indian conglomerate has bought a major cricket franchise, this boutique has often advised one side. When global private equity has tried to enter Indian cricket, A&W has helped it find the way in.
The firm employs 11 people and has advised on transactions across the most lucrative period in cricket’s commercial history. It has remained largely unknown outside the executives, investors and owners making those deals.
This is A&W Capital: who runs it, how it works and where it goes next.
