Oval Invincibles, the Hundred’s most successful franchise, will be competing as MI London next year, the name favoured by their new Indian co-owners.
The change of monicker brings the men’s and women’s teams, who between them have won Hundred titles in each of the past five years, in line with the rest of the Ambani family’s Mumbai Indians holdings which, in addition to its IPL team, includes MI Cape Town in the SA20, MI Emirates in the ILT20 and MI New York in Major League Cricket.
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The Ambanis, through their Reliance company, bought 49% of Oval Invincibles in an auction which valued the franchise at £123m. Surrey will retain a 51% share in the franchise and marks the completion of the final deal from the ECB’s sale of equity stakes in the Hundred earlier this year.
On Wednesday Surrey said in a statement: “Surrey county cricket club and Reliance today announced their partnership in the Oval Invincibles franchise in The Hundred. As part of this new partnership, from 2026 both the men’s and the women’s teams will be known as MI London.”
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Oli Slipper, the Surrey chairman said: “We’re pleased to have reached an agreement with the Reliance team over our partnership in the Hundred franchise team. Reliance bring a significant depth of cricket and business expertise and have had great success with their franchise teams in India and around the world.
“We have worked very closely with Reliance over the name of the new team and believe that MI London will give us the best opportunity to build the fanbase at home and across the world.”
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