The naivety of the England & Wales Cricket Board when it comes to selling off stakes in each of the eight Hundred teams would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous.

In a process that the ECB’s Vikram Banerjee likened to “very strange speed dating”, cricket’s governing body will put 49 per cent of each team up for sale to private investors, while each of the hosts will retain a 51 per cent stake they can sell at any time.

This model of privatisation will, the ECB hope, generate funds to sustain the domestic game for years to come while the governing body retains overall control of the Hundred.

However, the process is so opaque that nobody is quite sure yet what the net result will actually be.

Unlike the £400m bid from Bridgepoint Capital for a 75 per cent stake in the whole competition that was rejected two years ago, the ECB believe this will not be selling off the English summer.

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The issue, though, is that nobody can actually say how damaging this whole process may be for the English game in the long term.

Once you let private investors in, there is no going back. And the problem with venture capitalists is they will not have the game’s best interests at heart. Indeed, the bottom line for them, as always, will be what can make the most money.

That will especially be the case if the people investing in the Hundred have next to no knowledge of cricket.

When talking about inviting potential investors to watch this year’s tournament, Banerjee, the ECB’s director of business operations, let slip during a conference call on Monday: “Some of our American friends for example, may like the idea of what we’ve got but don’t really know cricket at all so they’ll come along and see what English cricket’s about.”

Among those potential suitors are the Glazers, the American family whose ownership of Manchester United has been an object lesson in the dangers of private investment. Others include Wrexham’s Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, apparently interested in Welsh Fire.

The ECB have also been in touch with several heads of NFL American football teams and every single Indian Premier League franchise owner. But unlike football, there is no fit-and-proper persons test in cricket yet. Kim Jong Un in for Trent Rockets anyone?

To oversee this process, the ECB have employed the Raine Group, the American bank who brokered Todd Boehly’s takeover of Chelsea. What could go wrong?

Initial projections predicted the ECB could raise £500m from this sell-off. 10 per cent will be set aside for the recreational game with the rest split between the 18 first-class counties and MCC.

A big issue is that potential investors fear the Hundred hosts won’t give up their 51 per cent stakes.

Private equity firms see little value in anything other than purchases that give them a controlling interest. That in turn will drive down the potential value of those 49 per cent stakes. Fears are that whatever is raised won’t even be enough to service the estimated £200m debt in the county game.

One damning report last week laid bare the issues, with one IPL representative telling The Telegraph “the numbers don’t stack up” and were “delusional”.

Another source, speaking to ESPNCricinfo, added: “The ECB have messed up, haven’t they?”

The timeline on this is tight, too. The ECB hope to have this all concluded by March.

It seems desperate. This is a tournament that only started in 2021. Why not wait?

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But the ECB have felt pressured by the emergence of three tournaments now during the English summer – the Caribbean Premier League, US Major League Cricket and Canada’s Global T20.

The Hundred, with a maximum salary of £125,000 for men’s players, is losing star names to these leagues. They need private investment money to help attract them.

But the real issue is that the Hundred has been a failure. It doesn’t make money. It is also losing TV viewers year on year.

This sell-off is an admission of that. But with a broadcast deal until 2028, there was never any danger of the Hundred being axed, despite many traditional fans being alienated by it.

The biggest question is what comes next. ECB chief Richard Gould admitted on Monday there could be the potential for 100 per cent ownership of some Hundred teams from next year if hosts did decide to sell off their stakes. This seems an inevitability in the medium to long term anyway. And then what?

The Hundred has already downgraded the domestic 50-over competition that takes place at the same time to virtual second-tier status, with the best domestic white-ball players in the 100-ball tournament. The T20 Blast will surely be next.

Once private investors acquire controlling stakes in all the Hundred teams, they will surely weaken links with the counties or sever them altogether. That might see many wither and die.

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And what about international cricket? Will IPL owners and US venture capitalists want the competition clashing with Tests in the summer? Won’t they demand England’s best players to be available?

We already lost August last summer when the Ashes were crammed into a seven-week window before the end of July.

Maybe the ECB will feel compelled to reduce the number of Test matches if team owners and broadcasters dictate there’s more money in expanding the Hundred?

It’s surely why the Government should get involved in this. The ECB does accept funding from them after all. This is a potentially seismic shift that could forever change the national summer sport.

How can it go ahead unchecked?