The third season of ‘The Hundred’ will soon be underway from the 23rd of July. Ahead of the tournament opener, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has promised that the tournament will take a whole new look from the next season onwards. Private investors and fresh funds will be pumped into the unique cricket league, which will help it reach new levels.

ECB said that among the interested investors, there are a few Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises who want to be a part of this league, however, the identities or specifics of those will not be disclosed as of now. The ECB tournament from next year will function as any other franchise league worldwide.

We’re about to enter a commercial negotiation, but at a principal level, this will run very similar to other franchise leagues around the world. We have spoken about the IPL owners. I’ve met all of them and taken feedback from them on specific things about what’s important,” Vikram Banerjee, director of business operations of the ECB, said in a conference call organized for the world media.

“We’ll then look to start the process in earnest in early mid-September. So (we are) kind of building off that momentum that hopefully is created from the tournament with the name that the 2025 season becomes the first season with a different look. We obviously can’t say just yet, but the process will probably run into early next year, with the idea being that at least broadly, who’s coming into what team by the time the draft comes around, by the time the ticket on sale comes around in February- March.”

ECB, however, is clear in there thoughts about not giving away the controlling power to the private investors.

“Well, control comes at different levels. It comes at the team level and it comes at the competition level. In terms of ceding control at competition level, and therefore the length of the window, where that window sits, how the competition is organized, that’s not something that we are ceding control of,” Richard Gould, the CEO of ECB said.

“That’s why we’re not selling the competition. That’s why we’re focused on those teams. And I think we’re finding that different investor groups have different needs. For some of them, control, for example, of what happens on the field will be very important. For others, branding will be important. The commercial element will also be significantly important.”