Reportage
Inside Nike’s second innings in India
Within six days, Nike returned to Indian cricket and launched its first running shoe designed for India. Much of the comeback is being built outside Nike India, a loss-making wholesaler.
IPL
Analysis
The IPL’s coming $5 billion squeeze
Media Partners Asia expects a 94-match IPL to fetch Rs 48,500 crore, flat overall and 13% lower per match. One credible buyer leaves the BCCI bargaining over everything beyond the cheque.
Reportage
The Rs 1,500 crore prompt: How Google and OpenAI bought into Indian cricket
As gaming money receded, Google and OpenAI turned to cricket with rights, partnerships, and media packages valued at nearly Rs 1,500 crore. Both want their products to become the first place Indians turn to when a question comes to mind.
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.
Reportage
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.
Reportage
From S Tendehar to the ICC: Cricket’s 43-year hunt for a game of its own
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. Turning those pieces into one complete game will be harder.
Reportage
The Rajasthan Royals sale: five weeks, 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: How the $1.78 billion RCB deal is being financed
Three weeks after Diageo agreed to sell Royal Challengers Bengaluru for $1.78 billion, the consortium buying it is still raising the funds part of the money. 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.