'Justify' any Hundred expansion - Originals chair

A 70% stake in Manchester Originals has been bought by the owners of IPL team Lucknow Super Giants

Any expansion of The Hundred from eight teams would need to be justified, according to the chair of Manchester Originals.

On Thursday, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director of business operations Vikram Banerjee said expansion is a "no brainer" if the tournament continues to grow.

Auctions have valued the current eight teams at a combined £975m and the earliest any more teams could be added would be 2029, following the conclusion of the ECB's broadcast deal with Sky.

On the possibility of expansion in 2029, Originals chair James Sheridan said: "It is understandable that the ECB is open to that because it has stakeholders who want to join the party.

"Whether it makes sense for team owners and the existing eight teams, we'll have to see.

"We have to see that people who've invested an awful lot of money in the competition and the teams are seeing a growth in that investment to justify an expansion."

Sheridan was speaking at an event to launch the Originals' partnership with the RPSG Group, owners of Indian Premier League (IPL) side Lucknow Super Giants. RPSG have agreed to pay just over £80m for a 70% stake in the franchise based at Old Trafford.

Lucknow were one of two new teams to join the IPL when it expanded from eight to 10 franchises in 2022, 14 years after its inaugural season. The Hundred is a much younger competition, having been founded in 2021.

Sheridan pointed to the format of The Hundred, which includes men's and women's competitions with double-header matches at the same venue each day, and the existence of the counties' T20 Blast.

"The UK has got an 18-team short-form tournament," he said.

"One of the special things about The Hundred has been the double-header, top-level women's cricket alongside top-level men's cricket, and there should be a focus on getting that better and better.

"Expansion only makes sense if this competition grows very strongly over that period of time, a quick period."

Banerjee, who oversaw the sales of stakes in the eight existing Hundred teams, explained that expansion would depend on the financial benefits, identifying suitable venues and having the depth of players to fill more squads.

In terms of location, Durham's Chester-le-Street and a ground in the south west, Somerset or Gloucestershire, would be the most likely candidates for a new team.

The ECB has been adamant that The Hundred will not take up any extra space in the calendar, sticking to a window of four weeks in the school summer holidays.

Given the current format includes each team playing eight group matches - six opponents once and their nearest rivals twice - expanding to nine teams playing each other once would not greatly inflate the number of games played, supporting the assertion that it is possible to grow The Hundred within the current window.

However, growth to 10 teams could lead to 13 more group games than the current schedule if each team played one another once.

Shashwat Goenka, vice-chair of the RPSG Group, said: "Globally we have seen some sporting events expanded in terms of a number of franchises being added.

"When you look at it from a before and after situation, the overall event and individual franchises have always done better once more teams have been introduced.

"Those teams generally get introduced once there is a certain base that has been established for a competition."