The 10 big questions that still need to be answered following The Hundred sale worth £975MILLION… including what happens when that money runs out

The Hundred sale last week valued the eight franchises at an eye-watering £975m. 

The Top Spin flags up 10 questions that arose from a momentous week for English cricket.

1. Has county cricket really stepped back from the edge of financial oblivion?

For the moment, yes. Assuming all the deals remain on the table at the end of an eight-week consultation period between the host clubs and their investors, even the 11 counties who don’t host a Hundred team will stand to earn around £29m. 

The collective debt in the domestic game is around £200m; Northamptonshire were once said to be scrimping on loo roll, while Sussex have been reluctant to turn on the floodlights. 

Now, the ECB believe they have given counties the means to support themselves. If they can’t do that with £29m, the game’s up.

The Hundred sale went through last week as the eight franchises were sold for a combined total of £975m

For now, the sale has meant county cricket has stepped back from the edge of financial oblivion

Counties are happy with the sale, but what will happen if the money runs out?

2. What happens if and when the money runs out?

There are legitimate concerns that the gap will eventually grow between the host and non-host counties. 

The non-hosts will do well in the short term, but the hoped-for growth of the competition will benefit mainly the hosts, five of whom have retained their 51% share – to cash in on a rainy day. 

The domestic game has long been divided between the haves and the have-nots. The sale may merely have delayed the moment when the gap becomes a chasm.

3. If the tournament expands, as the ECB hope, what will that mean for the shape of the summer?

The scale of the investment has encouraged the notion that two teams could be added to the existing eight – possibly based at Chester-le-Street and Taunton, though with Kent pushing Beckenham as a third London venue. 

But August has already been sacrificed on the Hundred’s altar, and the ECB admit they still need to work out how the 2026 season will take shape. The reality is that more expansion will mean another chunk taken out of the county schedule. 

But given the payout, how many of the 18 are going to kick up a stink? There could be some angry correspondence with the 70,000 county members in the months ahead.

4. Will the new owners insist on a greater presence of England players?

The Hundred’s most newsworthy moment in 2024 came when Ben Stokes tore a hamstring in one of his three games for Northern Superchargers (sum total: four runs, no wickets). It ruled him out of four Tests, affected the balance of the side on his return in Pakistan, and contributed to his latest injury, in New Zealand. 

But it seems inconceivable that wealthy investors from India and the USA will not push for England’s stars to play a more prominent role. 

After all, their greatest chance of a return on their cash is through TV rights, for which the presence of Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer and Co will be crucial. More injuries, and more international absences, will be hard to avoid.

The new owners will want the likes of Jos Buttler (left) and Jofra Archer (right) to play regularly

5. Is there any hope of persuading India’s players to take part?

During the Hundred’s gestation period, Tom Harrison – then the ECB’s chief executive – quietly suggested he had heard positive noises from the BCCI. 

Despite their worldwide ban on Indian players taking part in any domestic T20 tournaments outside the IPL, they would consider releasing them for the Hundred. It was a beguiling thought, but last week Richard Gould – Harrison’s successor – ruled it out, despite four of the eight teams being snapped up by owners or co-owners of IPL sides. 

The BCCI are unlikely to ever relinquish their competitive advantage, but are more than happy to have bought up another chunk of cricketing real estate – and spread the IPL’s tentacles even further.

ECB chief Richard Gould (pictured) has ruled out the prospect of Indian players featuring in The Hundred

6. Will Pakistani players be squeezed out by Indian involvement?

The ECB say this won’t happen – but we shall see. Pakistan players took part in the first IPL, in 2008, but have been banned ever since the Mumbai terrorist attacks later that year. 

The arrival of the Pakistan Super League has provided only partial compensation. 

And it will be instructive to find out whether Oval Invincibles, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers and Southern Brave – the four franchises to have secured investment from IPL owners – change their recruitment policy over the next couple of years.

Pakistan players such as Shaheen Afridi (right) could be squeezed out by Indian involvement

7. How do the ECB know the counties will spend the money wisely?

Last week’s briefing at Lord’s was full of the right noises. There would be “total visibility and transparency”, and the plan was to “create sustainable business models for the 18 first-class counties”. 

The money, say the ECB, should be “invested”, not “spent”. This ought to silence, at least for now, the conspiracy theories about stealth plans to allow some of the poorer counties to go bust. 

But the talk of “guardrails” suggests at least some nervousness at Lord’s about spending plans.

8. What have the ECB done to avoid another Allen Stanford fiasco?

It seems like only yesterday that Stanford, a Texan billionaire who turned out to be running a giant Ponzi scheme, was landing his helicopter at Lord’s and dazzling the suits with a Perspex crate of fake dollars. 

This time, the ECB say they have done due diligence worthy of the name, and point out that the sales process initially attracted around 100 offers – not all of them ticking the right boxes. 

Another scandal now would be disastrous. But the ECB insist they have not been complacent.

English cricket must make sure there is no repeat of the Allen Stanford fiasco

9. Is Test cricket in August a thing of the past?

When the 2023 Ashes ended on the last day of July, administrators promised Test cricket would never again be squeezed out of August’s primetime. 

Yet this summer, the fifth and final Test against India is due to end on August 4, paving the way for the Hundred to be the main show in town. 

The ECB must not take Test fans for granted. Because before long they will be trying to attract supporters who never had the option of a summer-holiday trip to the Test.

The window for Test cricket in August has slimmed down due to The Hundred

10. Where would the Hundred be without county cricket?

It wouldn’t exist. For all the elation and starry-eyed glances towards the CEOs of Google and Microsoft, investors have essentially forked out for players and venues that were handed to them on a silver platter. What exactly, then, are they investing in?

The answer is both tangible and theoretical: they are investing in the possibility of lucrative TV rights, and in the unknown by-products of soft power. 

Yet without the existing infrastructure of the county game, they would be investing in nothing at all. English cricket will do well to remember that in the years ahead.

England deserve a breather

All it needed for their critics to get hot under the collar was a suggestion live on TV by Indian commentator Ravi Shastri that England had trained only once throughout their recent three-week white-ball tour of India. In fact, they had trained half a dozen times. 

The non-training period came in the five-day stretch between the first and third ODIs, which included two travel days and one actual game of cricket.

Now, you may argue they should have trained on one of the other two free days, but England’s inability to play spin is deeply ingrained, and unlikely to be remedied by a couple more hours in the nets. And that is not the only problem. 

England’s cricketers have endured such a punishing schedule that a little breathing space here and there is now the only option. Still, it was a better story to say they had trained only once…

Indian commentator Ravi Shastri (pictured) accused England of hardly training in India

His accusation was wide of the mark as England actually trained half a dozen times on tour

Champions Trophy papering over ODI cracks

The Champions Trophy starts tomorrow in Karachi, where Pakistan take on New Zealand – and the global nature of the tournament ensures interest levels will remain on the right side of the line marked ‘acceptable’. 

But if the growing futility of bilateral 50-over series was not already clear, it was underlined by the weakened side Australia put out for the two ODIs in Sri Lanka that followed the two Tests. 

To widespread indifference, the Australians lost all 20 wickets in a total of 58.1 overs, and were dismissed for 165 and 107. They’ll forget it quickly. And so, in all probability, will Sri Lanka.

Steve Smith’s Australia were thrashed by Sri Lanka in an ODI series that will quickly be forgotten

Hales heads off

Has English cricket seen the last of Alex Hales, who looks set this summer to place Major League Cricket and the Caribbean Premier League ahead of the T20 Blast and the Hundred? 

If so, he will go down as one of England’s best white-ball openers, until he fell out – disastrously for his international career – with Eoin Morgan.

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