ECB announce 2024 domestic schedule

Five domestic trophies are set to be decided in September while the Vitality Blast will be staged almost entirely on Thursday nights, Friday nights and at weekends following the release of the 2024 domestic schedule.

The ECB has confirmed the men’s county and women’s regional domestic fixtures for next summer, which also includes 22 men’s and women’s T20 double headers, while the Charlotte Edwards Cup has been expanded to include 10 group-stage matches for each team.

The County Championship will be played in each month of the season – including back-to-back rounds in June and July ahead of the England Men’s Test summer – with champions Surrey facing a tough first-up test away to Lancashire when the season begins on Friday, 5 April.

The format of Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day will for the first time mirror Vitality Blast Finals Day – with two semi-finals and a final to be staged at the Incora County Ground in Derby on Saturday, 22 June.

The remaining five trophies - across men's county, regional women's and disability competitions - are then set to be decided in September with the Vitality Blast quarter-finals kick-starting the month before sold-out Finals Day at Edgbaston on Saturday, 14 September.

The final of the ground-breaking Disability Premier League, which returns for a third season with a fresh new logo, is also set to be staged in September with full fixtures to be confirmed.

Both women’s and men’s 50-over finals will be played on the same weekend in the East Midlands, with the Uptonsteel County Ground in Leicester staging the Rachael Heyhoe Flint final (Saturday, 21 September) before Trent Bridge plays host to the Metro Bank One-Day Cup final the next day. The final round of the County Championship will begin on Thursday, 26 September.

T20 competitions

More than 850,000 people attended domestic T20 competitions last summer and next year's Vitality Blast schedule has been tailored so that 121 of 126 group-stages matches will be played on Thursday nights, Friday nights and at weekends - an increase from 93 matches in those timeslots last season. Twenty-two Vitality Blast-Charlotte Edwards Cup double headers will be staged - an increase from 20 last season - across 16 venues.

Vitality Blast Off will feature eight double-headers, while the competition will adopt ‘Rivals Week’ when 10 of county cricket's closest rivalries will take centre stage to finish the first block of group-stage matches on June 20 and 21. Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day will follow the next day, when no other fixtures are scheduled.

The Disability Premier League draft is set to be staged in March with the four-team competition's successful format set to remain unchanged. Hawks will bid to defend their title, after defeating Pirates in front of the Sky Sports cameras at Derby, with the month-long competition set to run from August into September.

County Championship

The County Championship will begin with eight consecutive rounds played from Friday-Monday each week in April and May, to allow more opportunity for members and fans to attend at weekends.

The County Championship will return with back-to-back rounds in June and July, when each county will play one home match and one away match. The two rounds will provide the opportunity for England Men’s players to prepare ahead of the Test summer, which begin on July 10 against West Indies at Lord’s. There will be two County Championship rounds at the end of August before the title run-in during September.

50-over competitions

The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy begins on Saturday, 20 April. Southern Vipers won the white-ball double last season and begin their summer schedule away to South East Stars.

Leicestershire start the defence of their Metro Bank One-Day Cup title at home to local rivals Notts Outlaws on Wednesday, 24 July. The Foxes, who memorably won their first one-day trophy in 38 years at the Outlaws’ Trent Bridge home in September, have been drawn in Group B.

Group A: Lancashire, Worcestershire, Kent, Middlesex, Durham, Hampshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Derbyshire.

Group B: Essex, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Surrey, Glamorgan, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Sussex.

Start planning your summer now

Supporters looking to plan their summer of cricket are encouraged to consider the following opportunities:

• Vitality Blast season tickets – secure your seats early by purchasing either a season ticket for every home group-stage match in the Vitality Blast or county membership. Visit ecb.co.uk/t20-blast/tickets for links to team’s season ticket passes or membership opportunities to take advantage of multi-match saving
• Membership – visit county websites for details of the different membership packages available and benefits on offer
• E-calendar – synchronise your team’s fixtures to your desktop or mobile calendar and don’t miss a match with reminders ahead of every matchday. Download your team’s schedule here.

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