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

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 keen 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.

One way to ward them off would be to lose the draft system and the set salaries for each contract in favour of an IPL-style auction.

In terms of competitiveness, though, the draft has worked well as the two finalists in the women’s competition this year would attest.

Both Fire and Spirit struggled in the early years but, similarly to US sports, high draft picks have enabled them to reshape and develop their squads to compete.

Another sign of that competitive balance is the number of close games this year, including three ties and the tournament’s first Super Five in the men’s Eliminator.

Whether anything is done that might alter that is just another question as yet unanswered.

We know the ECB will retain ownership of the competition itself and there is no indication The Hundred will expand beyond its existing eight teams until at least the end of the current broadcast cycle in 2028.

In theory, that locks in the 100-ball format for another four years as well.

But given it has not been adopted elsewhere and the phenomenon that is T20 cricket, the prospect of adding those extra 20 balls per innings, losing five-ball sets in favour of six-ball overs and such like will always be lurking.

The forthcoming changes, though, have the potential to put it front and centre again.

Let the debates begin.