Oval Invincibles are one of the two teams whose private investment process is yet to be completed. The Mumbai Indians owners, Reliance Industries Limited, don’t want to stray from their MI branding of their teams in other franchise leagues around the world.
Following Manchester Originals’ Sanjiv Goenka’s confirmation, the Oval Invincibles, who sold their 49 per cent stake to the Mumbai Indians’ owners, the Ambani Family, are set to rebrand themselves as MI London after the new ownership takes effect from October 1, 2025. The ECB will retain a 51 per cent stake in the Oval franchise, while the Mumbai Indians’ owners have entered into a partnership with Surrey County, which controls the Oval side.
The 2025 edition of the Hundred was the transition period before the ownership model gets into the next year and akin to their franchises in the T20 leagues around the world – MI Emirates (ILT20), MI New York (MLC) and MI Cape Town (SA20), the Ambani Family is keen to continue with the MI branding in England as well, as per the Telegraph report.
The name change was one of the aspects where Surrey pushed back the new owners and hence, the Oval deal is one of the two yet to be completed, alongside the Trent Rockets. There are several other issues to be sorted before it gets completed, hopefully before the October 1 deadline. Earlier, Surrey Chairman Oli Slipper wanted to give the franchise the ‘Surrey’ moniker instead of Oval, but the terms and conditions of the tournament between the ECB and Sky Sports didn’t allow the Hundred team to adopt any of the County names.
If the name change does take place to MI London, there will be two Hundred franchises with the city name as the Tech Titans, the investors in the London Spirit franchise have decided to keep the name. Also, the colour scheme for the two-time men’s and women’s champions will switch from cadet blue and green to blue and gold, a shade very similar to blue and black of the Spirit.
On the other hand, the Invincibles will be the third franchise with IPL ownership to go for rebranding as Manchester Originals will become Manchester Super Giants, while the Northern Superchargers will have Sunrisers in their name. Southern Brave, with Delhi Capitals’ ownership, are yet to confirm the same.