County players have had their say on the new English domestic schedule for 2026, after the ECB restructured the windows for several blocks of competition.
The county cricket schedule has long been a source of controversy among players, with three competitions as well as The Hundred, to squeeze into the summer months.
This year, the ECB undertook one of their biggest re-structures to the domestic summer in recent history, re-modelling the men's T20 Blast into a three-group competition as well as reducing the group stage from 14 games per team to 12, and moving finals day to July from September.
To prevent excessive overlap between County Championship and T20 Blast knockouts, a total of six red-ball matches will be played back-to-back in August and September, an increase from three in the final block last year. That now looks the most condensed part of the summer, with The Hundred also moved forward into a slightly earlier window, beginning at the end of July. This follows the rejection of proposals to reduce Championship matches from 14 to 13 per side for the 2026 season.
In the women's competition, there has been a slight rebalance between T20 Blast matches and One Day Cup matches. Teams will play 12 Blast group stage matches compared to 14 last year, and 16 One Day Cup match compared to 14 in 2025. However, given that there are no North and South groups in the women's competitions the travel in between matches can be significant. Last year, Lauren Winfield-Hill labelled the schedule 'not safe'.
Despite the changes, there are still concerns over the proximity of matches to each other, and how that will affect player welfare. Speaking when the schedule was announced, PCA Chief Executive Daryl Mitchell said: “Unfortunately, the County Championship schedule does raise concerns with player burnout with mental and physical dangers attached to an overly intense end to the season following the conclusion of The Hundred. The reduction of just one game could have gone a long way to resolving a period that does not look manageable for the majority. I already fear this section of the season.”
With the season now just days away from starting, we asked four county captains what they think of the changes to the schedule.
James Anderson – Lancashire Men captain
“We might have to pray for a really hot summer so we can play four spinners [at the end of the season]. The schedule at the end of the year is absolutely crazy, with two days in between games. I just still can't get my head around that. We're going to have to hope that we've got a fit enough group of bowlers to be able to cope with the strains of that.”
Ben Brown – Hampshire Men captain
“It's always tricky. We could talk for hours about it. I think there are six games in six weeks at the end of the season, and in four-day cricket that's never ideal. From a red ball perspective, there are too many games in a short period of time, but it's been that way for a while. You have to try and get your mind and your body ready to go for that.
“I guess particularly with the fast bowling group as well... it isn't naturally conducive to bowling quick. You're asking guys to bowl one week, sit on a service station, motorway, etc. And then go again. It's not an easy thing to do.”
Tymal Mills – Sussex Men T20 Blast captain
“It's a bit better. Certainly, in terms of getting it in one block, that was pretty obvious to everybody – I don't think there were many people that thought the previous schedule was correct, in that regard. It's nice now to know that you play your group games and then the quarter finals and the final. Ideally you still wouldn't play the two rounds of four day cricket in the middle of it if I'm honest – just from the flow and the tempo of things, but it obviously does give me two days off in the middle.”
“From my point of view, 10 games would be more appropriate than 12 but, I think it's definitely a step in the right direction. This is the best schedule that it's been for quite a while. It means with overseas players, it doesn't affect us as much but for other teams, you know that your overseas players will be there for Finals Day if you make it, which is a big thing. Finals Day should be and is a really important day in the calendar, and you want every team to be at full strength. It's certainly a step in the right direction.”
Georgia Adams – Hampshire Women captain
“We're still waiting to see what the landscape will look like with the addition of Yorkshire, that's obviously more games, and then Glamorgan next year, that's even more games. It's how that's navigated. The biggest challenge for us at the minute isn't necessarily the cricket, we want to play as much cricket as possible, but the travel is quite relentless. Especially because we don't have North or South Groups in the Blast yet, that's something that in time will need to be addressed. We're just really happy to have loads of cricket on offer now because when you think back to five years ago, we barely played – we played 12 games a season.”
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