Pietersen gives thumbs up to IPL owners' investment in English teams
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen on Tuesday welcomed the investments made by IPL team owners in English domestic cricket, terming it as "amazing for English and world cricket."
After Mumbai Indians bought a 49 per cent stake in the Oval Invincibles in The Hundred competition, Lucknow Super Giants bought a similar share in the Manchester Originals franchise which they will run along with Lancashire.
"At the end of the day, you are an absolute idiot if you don't think India runs the world of cricket and anyone arguing against that clearly is deluded," Pietersen told the media on the sidelines of a promotional event.
"So actually when you see what India is doing for global cricket, the amount of cash that's being injected into now this last couple of weeks, the English cricket game, it's amazing for world cricket.
"I know the guys at the ECB and also my buddies were the one that took Lord's and the amount of money that they're spending just on Lords is… it's ridiculous."
He continued, "I don't think the ECB ever in their wildest imagination thought they were going to be able to accrue that sort of number just from one team."
Pietersen said the English counties are struggling financially.
"It's amazing what's happening in English cricket because there's a lot of the counties in English cricket that are really, really struggling. Now with this cash injection and the majority of it, of course, as you would likely say is Indian based, is amazing," he said.
Pietersen shared his experience of the SA20 tournament in South Africa wherein all six teams belong to owners of the IPL teams.
"Look at what they've done in South Africa. I was just in South Africa last week calling the SA20. All of the stadiums are full. The ownership is all IPL teams. Everybody's happy. The quality of cricket is spectacular. It's the way that the world is now," he said.
Pietersen said while it is too early to talk about the return on investments, the owners will certainly enjoy holding "trophy assets" like Manchester Originals.
"I think those are just trophy assets. I mean, owning Lord's is a major trophy asset and the Oval is a major trophy asset (for the Ambanis). I mean, GMR now having all of Hampshire is a major trophy asset.
"I think Goenka might have bought Manchester yesterday? It's LSG now, Old Trafford, I mean, that goes, it's right next to the football stadium (in) Manchester. It's a major, major asset," he said..
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