New ECB chair Richard Thompson has performed a U-turn on The Hundred, having previously voted against the tournament in his role as Surrey chair.
During his time in charge of Surrey, they were the only county to vote against the introduction of The Hundred and he also resigned from the ECB board in 2018, claiming that "too many decisions are being made without enough genuine debate" with The Hundred one of them.
At the time, he told the Cricketer : "We may have become a victim of our own success by producing a great format that we then lost control of and the IPL managed to capitalise on more successfully than we did."
Now, though, Thompson believes The Hundred is "creating real value for the game" and admits "that was not an argument I necessarily saw" when he opposed the tournament back in 2018. In an interview with the Times, he said: "I've seen it from a broadcast perspective and I look at the audience data for Sky and the BBC and they are over the moon with it.
"It is reaching audiences other sports are not reaching let alone cricket. As a broadcast product it is very effective and it's finding an audience that is creating real value for the game.
"In two-or-three years' time, or whenever, I think the game might be surprised what The Hundred is worth. Four years ago, when I was against it, that was not an argument I necessarily saw."
Thompson also revealed the ECB could accept private investment into The Hundred. "No one assumed what would be happening now with so many T20 competitions cropping up everywhere and the significant money flowing into the game," Thompson added.
"We saw the CVC deal in rugby, which I've looked very closely at, and other things playing out in other sports. There is no question that cricket will attract private equity but what it can't afford to do is be opportunistic. It needs to be strategic.
"You need to look hard at the value. If cost of living and inflation continues as it is and you have an asset there that you can realise, knowing that we've fixed 85 per cent of our income [with the new TV rights deal], then you can't ignore that."
