Hybrid pitches will be used for the first time in the 2024 County Championship season and, in a move that will please red-ball fans, matches will happen during every month of the season with two games in late August.
It was felt previously that hybrid pitches did not deteriorate enough for four-day cricket and so have been used only for white-ball games. But the England and Wales Cricket Board has decided that their steadfastness is more than offset by the opportunity to embrace technology and better allow grounds to cope with the volume of cricket played.
Alan Fordham, the ECB’s operation manager, stressed that the one-year trial would not mean the widespread stitching of pitches, a process that is difficult to undo. The county groundsman are said to welcome the opportunity.
There is more fiddling with the Championship regulations: the experiment with the Kookaburra ball will continue, in an attempt to better prepare players for international games overseas and encourage spinners; the number of matches where the Kookaburra is used increases from two to four.
The points system experiment from 2023 – 16 for a win, five for a draw – is binned, with a draw returning to eight points; but the change to the range of batting points remains, with teams having to score 250 before they can pick up any bonus points. A final tweak removes the bowl-out from the equation if any final is washed out. The teams would share the trophy.
The season itself has to be jigged around the men’s T20 World Cup which takes up most of June, and the Hundred window (fixtures announced in January) shifting slightly earlier.
County Championship opening-round fixtures, starting Friday 5 April
Division One Lancashire v Surrey, Durham v Hampshire, Kent v Somerset, Nottinghamshire v Essex, Warwickshire v Worcestershire. Division Two Derbyshire v Gloucestershire, Middlesex v Glamorgan, Sussex v Northamptonshire, Yorkshire v Leicestershire.
Key dates Charlotte Edwards Cup finals day, 22 June Blast finals day 14 September; Rachael Heyhoe Flint final, 21 September; Metro Bank ODC final, 22 September.
Surrey, the 2023 Championship winners, open their defence with a trip to Old Trafford on 5 April, while the runaway Division Two winners Durham entertain Hampshire for their first game since they were relegated with a points deduction in 2016. The game has an extra frisson as Hampshire were the club that benefited from Durham’s relegation.
Middlesex may well be subject to plenty of criticism from their fans after the county announced they had taken the decision to play two Blast matches at the Cloud County Ground in Chelmsford, Essex.
The CEO Andrew Cornish said the professional playing staff supported the decision, and concluded his statement by saying: “Whilst this may seem like a radical decision, it is one that we need to make to ensure that Middlesex gets back on a more stable financial footing.”
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Vitality Blast games will be played between Thursday and Sunday in an attempt to boost attendances back up to pre-Covid levels, while the Charlotte Edwards Cup has been expanded to include 10 group-stage matches for each team and a three-match finals day to mirror Blast finals day. There is also an increase in the number of Blast-CEC double headers.
The rest of the finals are shoehorned into a busy September finale which the ECB is calling Super September but the Surrey coach, Alec Stewart, criticised as “anything but” at the close of the 2023 season.
