The Charlotte Edwards Cup and Vitality Blast will combine for 22 double-headers in the 2024 season; County Championship will have back-to-back rounds in June and July ahead of men's Test summer; Disability Premier League draft will take place in March
Thursday 23 November 2023 12:07, UK
Twenty-two men's and women's T20 double-headers and an expanded Charlotte Edwards Cup feature among the 2024 domestic fixtures.
Ten group stage matches for each team and a Finals Day mirroring that of the Vitality Blast, with two semi-finals and a final, will see the Charlotte Edwards Cup culminate at Derby's Incora County Ground on Saturday June 22.
The double-headers will be staged across 16 venues in an increase from 20 in the 2023 season.
Next season's Vitality Blast will see 122 of the 126 group-stages matches played on Thursday and Friday nights as well as at weekends in a huge increase from 93 matches across those timeslots in 2023.
'Vitality Blast Off' will feature eight double-headers, while the competition will also introduce a '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 as a standalone event, when no other fixtures are scheduled.
The County Championship will be played in each month of the season and includes back-to-back rounds in June and July ahead of the England men's Test summer. The competition will start with champions Surrey facing Lancashire on Friday April 5.
There will be eight consecutive County Championship rounds each week in April and May before its return for back-to-back games 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".
The Test summer in 2024 begins on Wednesday July 10 against West Indies at Lord's and then there will be two County Championship rounds at the end of August before the title run-in during September.
The final round of the County Championship will begin on Thursday September 26.
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 starting the month before Finals Day at Edgbaston on Saturday September 14.
The final of the Disability Premier League, which returns for a third season, is also set to be staged in September with full fixtures to be confirmed.
The Disability Premier League draft will take place in March with the four-team competition's format set to remain unchanged.
Both women's and men's 50-over finals will be played on the same weekend, with the Uptonsteel County Ground in Leicester staging the Rachael Heyhoe Flint final on September 21 before Trent Bridge plays host to the Metro Bank One-Day Cup final the next day on September 22.
