'Hundred can't lose momentum with investment'

Nat Sciver-Brunt is the leading run-scorer in The Hundred women's competition

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has called for growth in The Hundred women's competition to continue, and is keen that momentum is not lost with the arrival of private investment in the tournament.

From next summer, The Hundred will have private ownership across the eight franchises, including a 49% stake in Sciver-Brunt's Trent Rockets purchased by Chelsea Football Club owner Todd Boehly.

That was one of four US-based investment groups, with the other four franchises bought, either in whole or in part, by owners of Indian Premier League teams.

However, only one of them - Mumbai Indians' owners, the Ambani family, who have agreed to buy a 49% stake in Oval Invincibles - has a side in the Women's Premier League in India.

"In the first five years we've done a lot of things right and the main part from the women's side is to feel like you're in equal measure, in equal opportunity, in equal everything really to the men's side," said Sciver-Brunt, speaking exclusively to BBC Sport.

"It's the sense of belonging that that gives you as a women's side, it's transformed the way we do things and the cricket as well. So, hopefully we don't lose that too much."

Crowd numbers for women's fixtures have passed 100,000 across the past two seasons of the tournament, with records consistently broken at individual venues.

The attendances for fixtures across 17 and 18 August were 47,726 spectators across four women's matches.

"More investment should help both the men's side and the women's side. Obviously we don't know the details of what that will look like and what's going to happen, but I'm hoping that it will be really positive," said Sciver-Brunt.

One element of the tournament that could change are the much-loved double-headers.

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould has suggested that independent fixtures would represent a positive change.

"At some point, we would like to try and find a way that we can have standalone fixtures. Getting a capacity crowd for a women's Hundred fixture at some point in the next couple of years has to be a target for us," Gould told ESPNCricinfo in June.