The 2025 home cricket schedule has been met with considerations for participant welfare because the Skilled Cricketers’ Affiliation referred to as for future adjustments to keep away from a “tragedy”.
The ECB confirmed subsequent yr’s County Championship and One-Day Cup fixtures on Tuesday, competitions which sit alongside the Vitality Blast and The Hundred in a packed six-month schedule subsequent summer season.
The announcement prompted criticism from PCA Chair James Harris, who says his organisation is having constructive ongoing communication with ECB surrounding participant welfare and desires the sport to come back collectively to make vital adjustments in 2026.
“There remains further, almost impossible, periods that allow peak performance,” mentioned Harris.
“In 2025, that is unacceptable in a world the place the attention of psychological and bodily well being of elite athletes must be prioritised given the professionalism and scrutiny within the fashionable period.
“We urge the game to come together because this issue cannot be kicked down the road any longer. We cannot wait for a tragedy before the game wakes up and recognises player welfare has not been prioritised.”
ECB Managing Director of Competitions & Main Occasions, Neil Snowball, says participant welfare is a significant factor within the scheduling of the county season
He additionally denied that the ECB is at loggerheads with the PCA.
“A decent chunk of matches are mitigated by double headers that have been scheduled,” Snowball mentioned.
“Weaving the 50-over cricket in and around other games was okay. There are enough days in the week in the six months for this.
“The fixtures have been acquired nicely… and we have now acquired some fairly optimistic responses.
“The aim was to give Counties what they wanted and we have been able to do that to about 95 per cent.”
Particulars of 2025 cricket schedule
The ECB confirmed on Tuesday that Surrey will start their bid for a fourth consecutive Rothesay County Championship title with a visit to Essex within the first week of April.
Surrey are aiming to grow to be the primary facet to win the competitors 4 occasions in a row since they recorded seven successive titles throughout a glittering interval between 1952 and 1958.
The Kia Oval group will head to Chelmsford from Friday April 4 to Monday April 7, with the opening spherical in Division One additionally seeing newly-promoted Yorkshire and Sussex go to Hampshire and Warwickshire respectively.
Nottinghamshire will host Durham, whereas Somerset welcome Worcestershire to Taunton.
In Division Two, Lancashire and Kent – each relegated from the highest flight on the finish of the 2024 season – open up with away fixtures, towards Middlesex and Northamptonshire respectively.
The opposite video games in spherical one are Derbyshire vs Gloucestershire and Glamorgan vs Leicestershire.
Eight rounds of County Championship motion will likely be contested throughout April and Could, with two every in June and July after which three extra in September to shut out the home summer season.
Kookaburra ball for use in June and July
The fixtures in June and July will likely be performed with the Kookaburra ball, versus the standard Dukes.
The Kookaburra cricket ball will likely be used for 2 rounds in June and two in July throughout the 2025 County Championship
The Kookaburra – which has a less-pronounced seam than the Dukes – was used for 2 rounds in April and two in September within the 2024 season.
Nevertheless, it’s hoped that the transfer to the peak of summer season will present reverse swing for tempo bowlers and likewise convey spinners into play.
The Kookaburra is especially used abroad, together with in Australia, and its introduction to county cricket was beneficial by Sir Andrew Strauss’ high-performance evaluation after England have been thumped 4-0 away from dwelling within the 2021-22 Ashes.
Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup finals in September
The fixtures for the Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup have additionally been introduced, with the group stage of the brand new girls’s competitors to be performed in April and Could earlier than returning in July and the lads’s pool part to be held in August.
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Watch the successful second as Glamorgan beat Somerset within the last of the 2024 Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup
Defending males’s champions Glamorgan – who beat Somerset within the 2024 last at Trent Bridge – kick off their defence at dwelling to Hampshire in Neath on Tuesday August 5.
The finals of each tournaments will happen in September – the lads’s at Trent Bridge on Saturday September 20 and the ladies’s at Hampshire’s Utilita Bowl a day later.
The ladies’s competitors will see the eight sides – Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Somerset, Surrey, The Blaze and Warwickshire – play one another dwelling and away earlier than the highest 4 advance to the semi-finals.
As well as, there will likely be a league two of the ladies’s Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup that includes Derbyshire Falcons, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire Foxes, Middlesex, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Sussex Sharks, Worcestershire Rapids. and Yorkshire.
The Girls’s Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup last will likely be held in Southampton on Sunday September 21
The Incapacity Premier League title can even be received in September.
The group stage, which options Black Cats, Hawks, Pirates, Tridents, will likely be performed over three rounds earlier than the ultimate is staged as a doubleheader with England’s males’s T20 towards South Africa in Cardiff on Tuesday September 10.
County Championship 2025 – first spherical of fixtures (April 4-7)
Division One
- Essex vs Surrey (Chelmsford)
- Hampshire vs Yorkshire (Utilita Bowl, Southampton)
- Somerset vs Worcestershire (Taunton)
- Warwickshire vs Sussex (Edgbaston)
- Nottinghamshire vs Durham (Trent Bridge)
Division Two
- Northamptonshire vs Kent (Northampton)
- Derbyshire vs Gloucestershire (Derby)
- Middlesex vs Lancashire (Lord’s)
- Glamorgan v Leicestershire (Cardiff)
Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup 2025
- Males’s last – Saturday September 20 (Trent Bridge)
- Girls’s last – Sunday September 21 (Utilita Bowl (Southampton)
Males’s teams in Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup
- Group A: Notts Outlaws, Essex, Worcestershire, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Glamorgan, Hampshire, Leicestershire Foxes, Derbyshire Falcons
- Group B: Kent Spitfires, Yorkshire, Somerset, Lancashire, Durham, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Middlesex, Sussex Sharks
Girls’s groups in Metro Financial institution One-Day Cup
- Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Somerset, Surrey, The Blaze, Warwickshire
