The new highest women’s salary is £65,000, another incremental increase from the £15,000 when The Hundred began in 2021.

In 2023 the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket recommended equal salaries in The Hundred by 2025. Rather than the gap between men and women closing, it has widened.

“The gap has got bigger because of market dynamics,” said Gould. “That wasn’t a recommendation we said we could deliver on and we have been very up front on that.”

Players’ frustrations over Hundred salaries come on the back of disquiet surrounding new regulations governing no-objection certificates (NOC).

A player requires an NOC from the ECB in order to play in an overseas league.

As part of the changes the ECB intends to implement for 2025, no player with a contract to play red-ball cricket for their county will be granted an NOC during the English season, except to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

This seems set to rule out the Pakistan Super League, which is scheduled to clash with the IPL and early part of the English summer.

A player with a white-ball-only contract can still be granted an NOC. There is confusion over players who are usually white-ball-only yet still have provision in their contracts to play first-class cricket. Gould said these will be taken on a case-by-case basis.

“We need to protect our summer,” said Gould. “When we have players under contract we want to encourage them to remain and play in our competitions. If they chose to become a complete freelancer, that’s absolutely fine.

“We don’t want to be issuing no-objection certificates for people to play in tournaments when we’ve got great tournaments for them to play in.”

Gould also said he expects stakes in all eight Hundred teams to be sold, with “multiple parties” interested in each franchise.

On the Champions Trophy, which is in limbo after India refused to travel to host nation Pakistan, Gould expects the competition to take place in February as scheduled.

“Location is the one that is still being worked through,” he said. “Quite sensibly, both Pakistan and India will be given a bit of time and space to work through those options.

“The value of Pakistan and India in global events is enormous and we want to make sure they’re playing.”