Revealed: The five new versions of the Hundred being considered

A radical overhaul of the Hundred will be discussed imminently that will propose adding new teams, selling a stake in the competition and creating a second division with England and Wales Cricket Board and county joint-ownership.

The ECB is set to press ahead with its plans to make radical changes to the Hundred as soon as 2025 after it enjoyed a strong season – its third since launching in 2021 – in both the men’s and women’s competition this year.

But ECB chief executive Richard Gould and chairman Richard Thompson are exploring ways to change it and Telegraph Sport can reveal they have drawn up five options to present to the counties.

The five options are:

1. Status quo

The Hundred continues as an eight-team men’s and women’s closed league, and the ECB funds and runs the competition.

2. Expansion to 10 teams

Two new teams are added, likely in the north-east (based at Durham) and south-west (Bristol and/or Taunton). The ECB would have the option of continuing to run it, or franchise the teams, which would raise funds for the game.

3. Central investment

This would see an eight-team closed league remain, with possible expansion to 10 in the coming years. The ECB would then sell a stake in the competition to a private equity firm such as CVC Capital Partners or Bridgepoint (whose £300 million offer for a 75 per cent share was turned down last year, with Thompson saying the ECB would want “a few billion”). Eventually, the teams could also be franchised, ceding further ECB control.

4. “A closed structure”

The ECB remains in control of (and funds) a closed league, with eight teams that could become 10. Each team would be a joint venture between the ECB and the first-class counties attached to the venue (so Oval Invincibles would include Surrey and Kent), therefore including every county. Third parties would then invest in those teams and the attached first-class counties.

In addition, a closed second division – with no promotion and relegation – would take place beneath to “provide purpose” for the counties that do not host a team.

5. “The Open Pyramid” (also known as “The Investable Pyramid”)

This would see a second division added and promotion and relegation “phased in”. All 18 first-class counties would host a team, and enter a joint venture with the ECB and third-party investors. The ECB would remain in control of the main competition.

The bottom of Division Two – which could be split into two conferences with play-offs – would not have relegation. But beneath this structure, the National (formerly Minor) Counties would play in what is being loosely called a “Festival of the Hundred”. The plans for this option suggest that the ECB is cooling on the idea of a full pyramid with promotion and relegation flowing up and down. Investors and broadcasters are said to be put off by the idea of promotion and relegation.

Some tweaks could be made to the above plans in the coming weeks, but the ECB has drawn up a rough timeline for making decisions over the future of the competition. The influential Professional Game Committee is likely to be consulted at a meeting on Friday, before all 18 first-class counties’ chief executives will be presented with the ideas on Oct 4. The county chairmen meet a week after that.

They hope to have established a preferred option by the end of this year, with hustings early next year and a formal vote from the counties next summer. Twelve of the 18 would need to approve it, and they hope a deal could be officially struck in the course of next season, in time to crack on with the chosen outcome in 2025.

It is understood that the ECB hierarchy – which has now been stripped of most of the architects of the Hundred, with tournament managing director Sanjay Patel leaving this month – have a preference for option five, with option four the other they are focusing on.

Discussions could impact Hundred’s future on BBC

Broadcasters will be consulted – although it is unclear when – and may present a potential snag. Sky has a deal in place to broadcast English cricket in its current structure – including the Hundred, which it likes very much – until the end of the 2028 summer. If it does not like what is on the table, it is unlikely to advance.

With the BBC’s television deal up for international cricket and the Hundred at the end of next summer, the ECB will be looking to secure a new free-to-air rights deal. Whether that is with the BBC remains to be seen and may hang on how these discussions progress.

Competition’s cost will increase – as will need for private investment

In the meantime, the Hundred will remain broadly the same next season, running from July 23 to Aug 19 in a domestic summer that is set to see no County Championship cricket played between July 3 and Aug 23. It is understood, though, that the ECB is already making moves to decentralise the Hundred, and has cut budgets.

This comes at a time when it is financially stretched, not least by the need to implement recommendations made in the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket. The ECB’s full plan for that is expected to be laid out next week.

With its reserves drying up and pressured by those financial imperatives, there is increasing consensus that private investment in the Hundred – as laid out in four of the five options above – is necessary. It is widely accepted that the Hundred is going to rise in cost in the coming years, with more funds required to lure the best men’s players from overseas, and the need to close the gender pay-gap. The ECB has an ambitious plan to have gender parity in the competition by 2025 (and all domestic cricket by 2028).

It is clear that from 2025 it is keen to “provide purpose” to the counties that do not currently host Hundred teams in the month of August (some grounds hosted just four Metro Bank Cup games in the entire month this year), but what role the women’s game plays in the plans is unclear. The Hundred’s women’s competition – and the more equal footing it has given the women’s game – is widely seen as its greatest success so far.

The format of the competition appears to remain up for debate. There is no mention of changing the hundred-ball format at this stage, but the ECB will likely keep an open mind in case investors would prefer Twenty20.