Private investment has brought an international flavour to the Hundred this year: more prominent overseas players, IPL-influenced team brands, and a suite of Indian and American owners and co-owners, who have lined hospitality boxes and stalked outfields up and down the UK.
Yet Trent Rockets, both of whose teams have qualified automatically for Sunday's finals at Lord's, are an outlier. They had the lowest valuation (£79 million approx; around US$98 million) when the eight franchises were sold last year and are the best of British: Cain International, the asset-management firm and Rockets' main investors, are based in London, and the key personnel across both men's and women's teams are largely home-grown.
Unlike many of their rivals, Rockets are largely run by the same people as before. Peter Moores and Chris Read have continued as men's and women's coaches respectively (Moores was promoted from assistant to head), and while Mick Newell may not have the high profile of some directors of cricket, he is hugely experienced and has a deep knowledge of English domestic cricket. All three have deep-rooted connections to Nottinghamshire and Trent Bridge.
The new investors have largely kept a low profile. Jonathan Goldstein, a director at Chelsea FC and Cain's co-founder, who chairs Rockets' board, has been at games and played at a team golf day. John Knox, the Cricket New South Wales chair, and a partner at Rockets' other investor, Ares Management, briefly travelled over from Australia. Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly's involvement has been minimal, beyond the initial funding.
At other franchises, incoming owners have changed team names and colours, brought in their own staff, and entirely relaunched teams that have operated for five years; at Trent Bridge, things are largely as they were, and Newell has been left to run the cricket without external interference. Rockets have resembled a team playing in their sixth season; many of their rivals are effectively in their first.
Their results have been extraordinary. Across both tournaments, Rockets have won 13 matches and lost only three, becoming the first franchise in the Hundred's six seasons to finish top of both men's and women's tables. The ECB introduced a new "Helix" trophy this year, combining men's and women's results and designed to create an overall champion; Rockets ran away with it, securing that title before the end of the group stage.
They have put faith in two outstanding captains. Sam Billings had a point to prove after his release, with minimal contact, from MI London (the revamped Oval Invincibles) and could soon lift the Hundred trophy for the fourth year in a row. Ash Gardner has been dealing with public revelations about her private life in the aftermath of Australia's T20 World Cup win, but has not let it affect her on-field leadership.
The biggest influence on Rockets' new investors arguably came months ago. Early this year, facilitated by Goldstein's football contacts, they enlisted Jamestown Analytics (JTA) - an off-shoot of Starlizard, the betting consultancy run by Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton and Hove Albion - to help with their recruitment strategy, which included providing analysts at the auction table in March.
Ostensibly, Rockets' auctions were chaotic: they signed only one of the first 11 players they bid on in the women's, and one of the first 12 in the men's. But those involved suggest this was a deliberate strategy: they went in with open minds and a handful of key targets, but had fixed upper limits for what they were willing to spend on players they liked. It meant regularly pulling out when bids reached a certain price.
Newell raised the auction paddle and both head coaches had the final say on bids, but JTA's analysts pushed hard for some players, and one in particular: Samantha Bates, the Australian left-arm spinner who is uncapped at international level. Bates was the final overseas player bought in the women's auction at her base price of just £15,000 ($20,000). Ahead of the final, she is the Rockets' leading wicket-taker for the season.
Rockets prioritised experience and leadership as key attributes to look for at the auction, with two of the older squads in the tournament, but much of their best work had already been done. Each team was allowed to make four pre-auction signings, and Rockets nailed theirs: Tim David, Ben Duckett, Mitchell Santner and Tom Banton for the men's squad; Nat Sciver-Brunt, Gardner, Sophia Dunkley and Kim Garth for their women.
Their men were losing finalists last year, winning four home games on dry, spinning pitches, but resolved to play with a more dynamic, transferable method and made the difficult call to release Joe Root, who had spent five seasons with them. Their £350,000 investment in David, their highest-paid player, is yet to pay off, but Billings backed him as "the best player in the world in this format" earlier this week.
Moores believes Rockets' age profile - Finn Allen, at 27, is the youngest player to make an appearance - helped them gel quickly, and has been particularly pleased with their fielding, epitomised by David's outstanding catch of James Vince and Duckett's dead-eye run-out of Nicholas Pooran in the space of three balls at The Oval last weekend. "It was one of the best fielding performances I've seen from anybody, ever," he says.
"It's a great advert for Carl [Hopkinson, Rockets' fielding coach], who has been doing the work with them," Moores adds, "but fielding is also a good indicator of how connected the group are, because it's the thing we do together. You have to put energy into what isn't your main skill, and it often is a bit of an indicator of where a team's at."
Dunkley is the women's team's top scorer, shrugging off the disappointment of losing her England spot in a home T20 World Cup, and has outperformed £210,000 signing Beth Mooney comprehensively. Sciver-Brunt's appearances have been limited by her ongoing calf issue but she has played on a different plane, averaging 64.33 with a freakish strike rate of 164.95 across her five matches.
"I've felt in a pretty good space in my cricket for most of the season," Dunkley says. "It's nice to contribute to the team and have that freedom at the top of the order… We've just tried to be aggressive and are lucky to have really great depth in our batting line-up. We're able to go hard early and it's worked on a few occasions. We've managed to put some good scores on and chase them down."
None of this is to suggest Rockets have been flawless: they curiously left £73,000 unspent at the men's auction, and only drafted in their outstanding wristspinner, Calvin Harrison, as a late replacement for the injured seamer Brad Currie. They have had some luck along the way, too - Billings has won seven tosses out of eight, and Gardner five - but that is an essential factor in any four-week, short-format tournament.
In 2008, Rajasthan Royals were the lowest-valued franchise in the inaugural IPL season and spent the least of any team on their squad, but they won the title through a blend of data analytics, adaptability and inspirational leadership. Rockets are on track to emulate them: all they need is the silverware to prove it.