The Hundred: What is next for tournament with big changes expected?

It is also unlikely to put off those interested in investing in the teams.

Owners of all 10 Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises are expected to bid, while there is believed to be interest from North America – including Hollywood actor and Wrexham owner Ryan Reynolds, according to reports, external.

The eight hosts of the teams will be given a 51% stake, which they can sell or keep, but the remaining 49% in each team is definitely up for grabs and will sold by the ECB.

Investment is coming then but what follows is far less clear.

When IPL owners have bought teams in other franchise leagues, it has often resulted in name changes and the expectation is The Hundred will be no different.

So we might not see London Spirit and Oval Invincibles defending their titles, rather it could be London Royals and Oval Capitals.

Of course, the hope would be that the money brought in is used to entice the world’s top short-format players to England for a month each summer.

That need is particularly urgent in the men’s competition because, while The Hundred can rightly claim to attract the leading women’s players from across the globe, that is simply not the case for the men.

Previously it was the Caribbean Premier League that proved more tempting to some big names; this year there was a clash with Major League Cricket in the US – something that is likely to occur again.

And while Pakistan eventually prevented him from playing anywhere, Shaheen Afridi pulled out of his deal with Welsh Fire in favour of turning out in Canada’s Global T20 tournament.

Tie-ins with IPL teams should help persuade more stars to join. More money will help too. But the competition from the US and Canada is going nowhere.