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2026 T20

P

Parkside

Winger
Contributor
Don't mind this
Men's Vitality T20 Blast
All played in one block.No gap between league and knock out.
The group stage of the Vitality T20 Blast reverts to three groups with North, Central and South Groups with the eight best-placed teams on points and net run-rates going through to the quarter-finals.
North Group: Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Durham, Yorkshire and Leicestershire
Central Group: Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Birmingham, Somerset, Glamorgan, Worcestershire
South Group: Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Middlesex, Essex, Hampshire
Each county plays the other teams in their group home and away - a total of 10 matches.
They will additionally play one home game against a county from outside their group and one away game against a side from another group.
The top two teams in each group plus the best two third-placed teams progress to the quarter-finals. The winners of the quarter-finals will progress to men's T20 Blast Finals Day.
 
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Looks like the ECB have got their way getting a reduction of games in format at least.

Looks an odd format, playing one team from the other two groups.
 
Don't agree with the reduction, but i'd rather this was reduced than the CC in terms of number of games.

Always thought there was room for each club to have a double header on a weekend, playing 2 games in 1 day against 2 different teams.

Let's see what the decision is with the other formats, i usually only get a T20 membership, wonder if that'll be a reduced price with fewer games
 
Three ways they could’ve gone about it instead of this mess.

1) Two divisions of 9 with promotion & relegation.

2) Single 18 team league with teams split into one of 3 tiers based on previous season’s performance. Each team gets given 6 teams (2 from each tier) to play home & away. Top 8 go through.

3) Just sticking to the North & South groups and reducing the schedule to 12.
 
Aidan11 said:
I've got a feeling this might be a compromise - leave the CC as it is but reduce the T20 by 2 games a season.

Then two years later we'll probably have another review suggesting again that the CC be cut.

The ECB will keep pushing till they get what they want.
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I would "settle" for that... For now. See what happens. I'm pissed off with the club at the moment so my membership renewal is very much up in the air.
 
Does one block mean squeezing it and ending up with games on a Tuesday when no one goes?

The players love this but I’d prefer they have a mixed schedule of CC and T20 which is more spectator friendly.
 
what do they mean by a 'central investment fund'

also mentioned a dip in attendances but offers no figures other than the peak figure, would be interesting to see how big the dip is
 
hopefully all the games will be weekends, no idea why they cant have game on a saturday, Tuesday and wednesdays arent helping get the numbers in im sure
 
Sillypoint said:
hopefully all the games will be weekends, no idea why they cant have game on a saturday, Tuesday and wednesdays arent helping get the numbers in im sure
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Each to his own, but don’t assume. I never go to weekend games, because I find the format too short to justify writing off a whole day of the summer. I don’t even like a Saturday afternoon football when the weather is really nice at this time of year. It’s an ideal format for an after work evening for me.
Struts said:
Three ways they could’ve gone about it instead of this mess.

1) Two divisions of 9 with promotion & relegation.

2) Single 18 team league with teams split into one of 3 tiers based on previous season’s performance. Each team gets given 6 teams (2 from each tier) to play home & away. Top 8 go through.

3) Just sticking to the North & South groups and reducing the schedule to 12.
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I’m not usually an immediate conspiracy theorist when it comes to the ECB like some on here, but this one does seem a bit iffy. Come up with a clearly ridiculous format that can easily be fixed by only playing 10 matches. I wonder what we’ll be doing in two or three years.
 
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Fleagle said:
Each to his own, but don’t assume. I never go to weekend games, because I find the format too short to justify writing off a whole day of the summer. I don’t even like a Saturday afternoon football when the weather is really nice at this time of year. It’s an ideal format for an after work evening for me.
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i did mean mostly friday nights, just found the tuesday and wednesday fixtures odd
 
Quite funny listening to the TMS podcast this morning. Tymal Mills throwing his approval behind the change to T20 scheduling and using an example where Sussex played a home game on a Friday night, then were away at Glamorgan the following night. Sir Alastair quickly chimed in reminding him that it was only a 3 hour journey and that test matches last 5 full days :lol:

Quite ironic really how the tiredness of all these county players seems to have subsided this month when there's thousands on offer. How many days cricket a season do the likes of Tymal Mills and other short format specialists play anyway?
 
The Breen Machine said:
Quite funny listening to the TMS podcast this morning. Tymal Mills throwing his approval behind the change to T20 scheduling and using an example where Sussex played a home game on a Friday night, then were away at Glamorgan the following night. Sir Alastair quickly chimed in reminding him that it was only a 3 hour journey and that test matches last 5 full days :lol:

Quite ironic really how the tiredness of all these county players seems to have subsided this month when there's thousands on offer. How many days cricket a season do the likes of Tymal Mills and other short format specialists play anyway?
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Not a lot mate and still amazingly he got paid 1.5 million for one IPL season of which he kept the lot as was not on any form of England contract.

Like KP and was knackered to much cricket never heard him spout that after the IPL gravy train began funny that!
 
Sillypoint said:
hopefully all the games will be weekends, no idea why they cant have game on a saturday, Tuesday and wednesdays arent helping get the numbers in im sure
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Because Saturdays are the least attended day for any cricket???

Fact.

Anyway. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are very popular sell outs at the oval and lords on those days this year.

And get more attendees than Sunday afternoon t20s.
 
Sillypoint said:
hopefully all the games will be weekends, no idea why they cant have game on a saturday, Tuesday and wednesdays arent helping get the numbers in im sure
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Club cricket on Saturday so almost instantly rule out a high percentage of those with an interest who would be in a position to bring families with them.

Midweek at CLS is difficult as not in a city centre to get the after-work crowd pitch up on a whim so will only be the hardcore regulars in. Friday night and Sunday day time should be the counties primary focus imo though agree with another poster there needs to be more value added to a T20 day out as less cricket to give a day up to. Double headers with women’s team a start though not sure how popular.

Always liked the idea of a ‘next gen’ fixture before hand where the academy sides play as a curtain raiser before the 1st team T20 - be some enthusiasts in early to watch future talent and enjoy finding some players careers to follow or local players they will develop an affiliation to as they progress through ranks (and hopefully don’t get offered a lowball contract and have to leave). There may be too much crossover between squads now for that to be possible but I would love to see Durham at least try to get the crowds in and develop a connection with club and fan - feel this is very lost atm.
 
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