HARRY SLYNN: The England managing director of men's cricket isn't concerned by the threat posed by Major League Cricket but feels the tournament must reward its star names sufficiently to keep pace with rival competitions
The Hundred can only rival franchise competitions in India and beyond with more investment in player salaries, according to England's managing director of men's cricket Rob Key.
Currently, the top men's salary stands at £125,000 while star players in the women's competition stand to earn just £31,250.
Those packages are dwarfed by many other global tournaments, not least in India. Record IPL signing Sam Curran is currently earning £1.85 million at Punjab Kings, while Nat Sciver claimed £320,000 during the inaugural WPL for Mumbai Indians.
"We have to concentrate on ourselves," Key told BBC Radio 5 Live. "We need to make sure that our competition is good enough and pays enough.
"I don't see why our competition can't be second-best to the IPL.
Nat Sciver was the WPL's second-highest earner (Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images)
"It can also be a better standard than the IPL because we've got more strength in depth in white-ball cricket than any other country."
He added: "That money might not be there at the moment. The top salary in The Hundred is £125,000 but you don't mind that at the moment because we are building towards something in the years to come, and the money will go up.
"That's how we will get the money and that alongside the central contracts will put English cricket in a great place."
The plea for additional investment comes just weeks after it was revealed the tournament, which is approaching its third year, has cost the ECB up £58.4 million - including the £1.3 million payment distributed to each of the 18 first-class counties.
Competition to seduce the best overseas male players has been complicated by the addition to the global calendar of Major League Cricket in July. While the ECB have declined the release of centrally-contracted players, Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis and Anrich Nortje have signed up.
Key celebrated a year as England's managing director of men's cricket earlier this month (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Key is not concerned by the timing of the tournament but is conscious that English cricket responds in the right way.
"I don't see any time, certainly in the near future, where a Test player or centrally-contracted player says, 'I'm off to America for three weeks' - that's not a threat at the moment," he added.
"There is no reason why we cannot have a better league than the American league. There's no reason why we can't sort out our franchise competition so that players say, 'Why would I go to America? I'll stay here and play in our competition'."
"What we want is a bit more control to be able to say yes or no, and be in the right position to say, 'No, you can't go and play there, we are looking after you really well here anyway'.
"So we've got to focus on our own game and invest well to make sure we can afford to pay people enough in the future."
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