Men's county schedule stays the same for 2025 but revamp in the works
Four rounds of Championship to be played using Kookaburra ball in mid-summer
Alan Gardner
26-Nov-2024
Surrey sealed their third County Championship in a row in September • Getty Images
Surrey will begin their quest to win a fourth consecutive County Championship with a trip to Chelmsford to face Essex in the opening round of the 2025 season, which will begin with all 18 counties in action from April 4-7.
As expected, the structure of the summer for men's county cricket is largely unchanged from 2024. The season opens with eight rounds of the Championship - now sponsored by Rothesay - followed by the group stage of the Vitality Blast, which is broken up by two blocks of Championship cricket in June and July, before the Hundred and the Metro Bank One-Day Cup commence in August.
It will again culminate in a packed September, which features the concluding three rounds of the Championship, men's Blast Finals Day, the deciders of both One-Day Cups, and the Disability Premier League final.
With the ECB having spent much of the last 18 months focused on producing a new County Partnership Agreement, major match allocations for 2025-2031, and the introduction of the new three-tiered women's county structure - as well as the ongoing Hundred equity sale - Neil Snowball, ECB managing director of competitions and major events, said work to reshape a men's programme that has grown haphazardly since Covid-19 and the introduction of the Hundred had been put to one side.
"All of that meant it didn't feel the right time to be undertaking a significant look at the men's domestic competitions," Snowball said. "But once we get to the other side of the Hundred sales process, we'll obviously look at that again. So that's why we're sticking with the same structure, with a few tweaks, for 2025."
While acknowledging some progress in addressing concerns on player welfare, the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) reiterated that more work needed to be done to create a "safe schedule" - in particular citing the fact a round of County Championship fixtures starts on Monday, September 15, two days after Blast Finals Day (which has a reserve day in case of bad weather), saying it threatened the integrity of both competitions.
"We urge the game to come together because this issue cannot be kicked down the road for any longer," James Harris, Glamorgan bowler and PCA chair, said. "We cannot wait for a tragedy before the game wakes up and recognises player welfare has not been prioritised."
The launch of a revamped women's game, headed by the eight newly professional Tier 1 teams, means 335 women's county matches being staged across the summer. It will be kicked off by the first block of One-Day Cup games in Apil and May, followed by the launch of the Blast - which will see every county host at least one men's and women's joint-matchday.
"This is a massive moment for the women's professional game, for domestic cricket," Beth Barrett-Wild, director of the women's professional game, said. "We've talked about how this is very much a start of a new era for how we're presenting professional cricket in this country, with the men and the women aligned alongside each other, and how we're really using this as an opportunity to elevate and embed the women's teams, in particular, through those new county identities."
The finals of the men's and women's One-Day Cup will be staged at Trent Bridge and the Utilita Bowl respectively, on consecutive days in September, as was the case last season.
There will again be four rounds of the County Championship featuring Kookaburra balls, although those games will be played consecutively in June and July rather than the early stages of the season. Alan Fordham, head of domestic cricket operations - professional game, said there had been "some pretty high-scoring games" and the decision was taken to "move [using the Kookaburra] back into the middle of the summer where we might see a bit more reverse swing and give more opportunity to spin bowlers."
The ECB will also continue for another season with its experiment of allowing hybrid pitches to be used in the County Championship, as well as for white-ball matches.
Work to redraw the men's domestic schedule, looking at what Snowball called the "purpose and objectives of each competition", is likely begin in earnest early next year, after the ECB has completed the Hundred sales process. It will involve the counties, the PCA, and the recently established Professional Game Committee, with the staging of the 2026 Women's T20 World Cup only adding to the logistical complexity.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick