Manchester Originals are likely to be rebranded as 'Manchester Super Giants' from the next season of the Hundred onwards. RPSG Group's head, Sanjiv Goenka, bought a 70 per cent stake in the Old Trafford-based franchise in England's 100-ball competition as part of the ECB's bid to privatise the league and pump in some investment from all around the world to put that money into grassroots and the English cricket system across the board. An amount of roughly £520 million has been raised by the partial and full sale of the teams.
While the Tech Titans, the consortium buying the London Spirit, have decided to keep the name, Goenka confirmed that the brand Super Giants will be integrated into the Manchester side as well. "You will see a name change, and we will definitely bring in the Super Giants into this."
"That is something that we're trying to integrate, Super Giants into all our franchises," Goenka told BBC Sport. Goenka currently owns the Lucknow and Durban franchises in the IPL and SA20, both with the Super Giants moniker after the name of the city in the franchise names. Not only the names, the Originals side might also lose its black and gray colour palette. "We'd like to have an integrated colour palette for all our cricket franchises."
The stamp of the cross-connection between an owner's franchise in other leagues was already visible in the ongoing edition of the Hundred in the respective franchises, with the Originals signing Heinrich Klaasen and Noor Ahmad before the draft, the duo who also play for the Durban side in the SA20. Now, Jos Buttler, who is the face of the Manchester franchise, has been pre-signed by Durban's Super Giants for the SA20 and Goenka mentioned that the ownership is trying to get as many players as possible to represent all of their teams.
"We would definitely want that, but with the IPL it's an auction system and therefore it's not always the simplest thing to do. [However], we would definitely strive towards that because it brings a greater bonding, it brings a greater continuity, it brings a greater understanding," he added.
The Originals were runners-up in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023 but are yet to win a title across both men's and women's teams.