The new Hundred competition hopes to change visa laws for the competition to make it easier for leading T20 players to appear in the competition, Telegraph Sport can reveal. It is hoped that the rules will give franchises freedom to select more of the best players in the world.

The England & Wales Cricket Board has already begun conversations with the government, aimed at changing the visa qualification rules for the three overseas players each of the eight teams in The Hundred will be permitted.

Currently, the visa rules for domestic cricket stipulate that overseas players (unless they have a European passport) must have played a certain number of international games in recent years, and play for one of the 12 Test-playing nations. The Hundred hopes to modify this to allow anyone who has played 25 official T20 matches in the previous 24 months to enter the player draft and be selected by sides, empowering teams to select any players they deem good enough.

The rules in place now have excluded many players who have excelled in leading T20 leagues from appearing in county cricket. In recent years counties have been unable to sign players like Australia’s Chris Lynn, and the West Indies players Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard - who are all regulars on the T20 circuit but, for different reasons, have played little international cricket in recent years - because they do not meet the eligibility criteria.