The Lancashire chairman believes it would “make a lot of sense” for the Hundred to become a T20 competition from 2025, as English cricket continues to debate the tournament’s future following high-level discussions over the prospect of opening it up to private investment. .

The ECB has met with the counties this month to discuss the future of the Hundred, following a successful third season of the tournament which saw record ticket sales and audience figures. The eight teams are owned by the ECB and run by boards made up of county representatives and independent members, but could soon be opened to private investors.

The Hundred’s future is assured for at least five more seasons as it forms an important part of the ECB’s television rights deal with Sky Sports, which runs until the end of the 2028 season. But the ECB’s timetable for possible changes in competing ownership structures would include a new model before the 2025 edition.

The Daily Telegraph reported last week that the ECB could give host counties shares in their respective teams and that they will consider adding two new clubs, likely based in the south-west and north-east, to create greater geographical spread. .

The Hundred’s 100-ball format was highly controversial at the time of its creation, and was devised both to satisfy the BBC’s (their free-to-air broadcasters) desire for shorter games and to create a distinction with Vitality Blast. The counties’ T20 tournament, which has continued as England’s second-tier short format competition.

The format has proven very popular with players and has produced games slightly shorter than Blast, but has not been successful worldwide. Lancashire chairman Andy Anson said on Wednesday that the Hundred no longer need a single format and should “align” with the cricket franchise switching to T20.

“It would make a lot of sense,” Anson told LancsTV, Lancashire’s domestic channel. “I think the format was an unnecessary creation. It was there to create a difference between Blast and Hundred… I think we’re past that. You won’t even need to rebrand: it could still be called the hundred.

“I think it should be T20, just to be in line with this game which is brilliant. It’s the best cricket format from a global audience perspective. It generates huge amounts of interest around the world… I would just fit in.” line with that, and I feel, in the meetings I am in, that there is sympathy for that attitude and for that change to occur.

The top salary in the men’s Hundred was £125,000 in 2023, which was less money for more work than that offered to top overseas players in the inaugural season of Major League Cricket in the United States, where four of the six franchises are backed by IPL Owners.

To attract the best in the world, Anson believes the Hundred would need private investment. “If you are going to make the Hundred the second best tournament after the IPL, you probably need to improve the amount of money that goes into player salaries to get the best players in,” he said.

“Right now we have salary limits that mean the South African league [SA20] you are paying more. The Middle East League [ILT20] is certainly going to pay more, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the American league [MLC] pay more. and so? [the Hundred] “It will go down the pecking order and we can’t let that happen, from a value perspective.”

Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of MCC, which is involved in running the London Spirit, will consult with members next week to “discuss concepts… and seek broad consensus” on the club’s attitude towards private investment in the Hundred .

“At the moment, the path forward is far from certain,” Carnegie-Brown, who announced this month that she will not run for re-election at the end of next season, told members in a recent email. “What we do know is that change is coming.”

Anson said Lancashire, which is the only county involved in the management of Manchester Originals, will also consult members and stressed that despite the club’s £30m debt following the Emirates Old Trafford investment, “they have no urgent need for capital or cash. …the debt is sustainable.”

He said: “The opportunity that everyone is discussing is around the Hundred, and if counties potentially have more franchise ownership in the Hundred… we have this discussion at the county chairmen and chief executives meeting and I would say that the majority as a capital injection at some point in the near future.