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<\/p>\nSurrey will open the defence of their County Championship title away to Lancashire in April<\/p>\n
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Reduced rounds of County Championship fixtures and more time between formats can help manage player workload, according to the England and Wales Cricket Board\u2019s operations manager Alan Fordham.<\/p>\n
The 2024 domestic schedule has 15 County Championship fixture slots instead of 16, with every side set to have a rest from action through rounds four, five or six.<\/p>\n
With a busy international summer \u2013 which includes the men\u2019s T20 World Cup hosted by the West Indies and the United States in June \u2013 the ECB has tried to limit the impact of another packed fixture list for counties across all competitions.<\/p>\n
Vitality Blast matches will be staged almost entirely on Thursday nights, Friday nights and weekends, running from the end of May to mid-July.<\/p>\n
The Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day will be at Derbyshire\u2019s County Ground on June 22, while the knockout phase of the Vitality Blast is set for a \u2018Super September\u2019 which will see the remaining five trophies \u2013 across men\u2019s county, regional women\u2019s and disability competitions \u2013 all be decided.<\/p>\n
Fordham accepts the ECB\u2019s hand was forced somewhat in the schedule jigsaw, which sees the Hundred window moved slightly earlier to start at the end of July, while all the men\u2019s bilateral international cricket has to take place after the T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Fordham, though, feels the compromises will play out to be worthwhile when the new season starts on April 5, with Surrey opening the defence of their County Championship title away to Lancashire.<\/p>\n
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The Vitality Blast kicks off with men\u2019s and women\u2019s double-headers<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are able to schedule these competitions reasonably satisfactorily, but we would all always like to do it better from a performance point of view and provide more distance between red and white-ball transitions if that is at all possible,\u201d Fordham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing we have done this year, and I think for the first time, which is a consequence of getting by with 15 rather than 16 slots, is ensuring that between Championship rounds there is always a three-day break.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally you would expect one game to be home and one away so there is often added travel between games, so a three-day break between four-day games is really quite important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been able to achieve that in 2024. That is not something we have been able to achieve in every previous season, so again, there is a bit of give and take.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am confident the schedule is the best output that we can possibly have, but there are always priorities to be made and compromises to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Concerns have been raised over player welfare due to a gruelling schedule <\/p>\n
Of the 126 Blast group-stage fixtures, 122 will be played over the most commercially appealing Thursday to Sunday slots.<\/p>\n
ECB\u2019s county cricket managing director Neil Snowball is confident the 2024 schedule strikes the right balance for all parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we have got the longer (Blast) group stage, we can actually just have those two blocks with the one transition (between competitions) of rounds nine and 10, whereas previously we have sometimes flipped between them,\u201d Snowball said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the things that they really didn\u2019t like from a player welfare point of view, so I think that is a positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is always balancing the commercial with the welfare, but certainly, there was a lot of good feedback from the PCA (Professional Cricketers\u2019 Association).\u201d<\/p>\n