Counties agree to cut in men's Vitality Blast games for 2026

The men's Vitality Blast will be reduced from 14 to 12 group-stage matches next season as part of a broad overhaul of English domestic white-ball cricket in the men's and women's game. However a mooted revamp of the men's first-class cricket has yet to be agreed upon, with parties hopeful of a decision before the end of the month, ahead of the return of the County Championship in September.

Following agreements from the required two-thirds majority of the 18 Professional County Cricket Clubs (PCCCs) and in collaboration with the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA), the men's county T20 competition will shift from two groups of nine to three six-team regional groups, as it was during the Covid-affected summer of 2020.

Each county will play the others in their group home and away (a total of 10 matches), with an additional home-and-away fixture against a side from the two other groups. The top two teams in each group plus the best two third-placed teams will progress to the quarter-finals. The winners of the quarter-finals will progress to Finals Day. The competition will be played in a block and completed in July, before the start of the Hundred.

The reduction in group matches follows recommendations from the county-led men's Domestic Playing Programme (DPP) review. While the limited-overs portion of the review has been heeded, the PCCCs are yet to agree upon a preferred layout of the County Championship.

It is understood that at present there are three red-ball options on the table, with no clear favourite. There is a strong desire out of necessity to establish a preferred option by the end of August to ensure counties know what they are playing for in the final rounds of this season.

The most innovative would see a 12/6 split between Division One and Two, with the top-tier made up of two groups of six. Each Division One team would play home and away plus two further fixtures against teams in the other group. The top two will then go into a final for the County Championship title, mooted for the middle of September.

The bottom team in each Division One group would subsequently be relegated, replaced by the team that finished top of Division Two, with the last promotion spot determined by a play-off between second and third. Despite only having six teams, Division Two sides will also play 12 fixtures; home and away against the other five teams, followed by home-and-away fixtures against two others.

The other alternatives are a two-division split (10 in Division One, eight in Division Two) with 12 matches played; or a continuation of the existing 14-match set-up. At present, four counties - Middlesex, Somerset, Surrey and Yorkshire - have publicly stated their preference to retain a 14-match County Championship season.

In a statement released by the ECB on Tuesday, Mark McCafferty, chair of the Professional Game Committee (PGC), which was set up in 2023, lauded the changes confirmed so far. He said: "These changes to the men's Vitality Blast will be a springboard to further investment in a historic and much-loved domestic T20 competition which is recognised as one of the world's best.

"The new group format intensifies the importance of many of these local derbies, and brings the quarter-finals and the iconic Finals' Day back into July, so improving the sporting and commercial narrative for sponsorship and TV partners, as well as meeting player wellbeing objectives by improving the group-stage schedules and travel demands to allow players to perform at their very best.

"The revamp is part of the current work to further strengthen all our men's and women's domestic competitions and on behalf of the PGC, I'd like to express my thanks and appreciation to the counties and to the PCA for their ongoing collaboration on this work, as we progress in the next phase to the Rothesay County Championship and the Metro Bank One-Day Cup."

The women's Vitality Blast will also reduce to 12 matches next season in Tier 1, the result of a separate vote from the 18 PCCCs that was not linked to the men's changes. With Yorkshire moving up from Tier 2 in 2026, making nine teams in the top tier, each county will play six home and six away matches, playing four counties twice and four counties once.

Tier 1 Finals Day will expand to house two semi-finals and the final, meaning the top four teams progress to the showpiece event. Previously the team finishing first went through to the final automatically, to play the winner of second versus third earlier in the day. The Vitality Blast Women's League 2 (Tier 2) will maintain eight group-stage matches, but move to a single group - changing from North and South Groups in 2025 - with a second-versus-third eliminator before the final.

The Tier 1 Metro Bank One-Day Cup competition will increase to 16 matches from 14, with a shift to an eliminator instead of two semi-finals. League 2 will be reduced from nine to eight group-stage games with each county playing each other once. The top four at the end of the group stage will progress to the knockouts stages. The winners of the two semi-finals progress to the final.

"The changes for 2026 were developed in consultation with the game and the players," Beth Barrett-Wild, ECB director of the women's professional game, said. "The player representatives did voice a desire to increase the volume of cricket, to allow an even home-and-away Vitality Blast in Tier 1, but also recognised the scheduling challenges that would cause.

"There was always going to be a settling-in period across Tiers 1 and 2 during these first few seasons, and these changes are set to be for next summer only with a planned review again ahead of the 2027 season, when Glamorgan will move from Tier 2 into Tier 1. This will also follow another phase of learning as the new women's competitions embed into the overall county structure."

Speaking on the overall changes to limited overs cricket, ECB chief executive Richard Gould said: "County cricket in England and Wales has long been the gold standard and it has been important that the counties have led the discussion in consultation with the game as we look to make all of our men's and women's county competitions the best they can be."

Group A: Derbyshire Falcons, Durham, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Notts Outlaws, Yorkshire
Group B: Bears, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Somerset, Worcestershire Rapids
Group C: Essex, Hampshire Hawks, Kent Spitfires, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex Sharks

Women's Vitality Blast (Tier 1)

Bears, Durham, Essex, Hampshire Hawks, Lancashire Thunder, Somerset, Surrey, The Blaze, Yorkshire

Women's Vitality Blast League 2 (Tier 2)

Derbyshire Falcons, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire Foxes, Middlesex, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Sussex Sharks, Worcestershire Rapids.

Women's Metro Bank One-Day Cup (Tier 1)

Bears, Durham, Essex, Hampshire Hawks, Lancashire Thunder, Somerset, Surrey, The Blaze, Yorkshire

Women's Metro Bank One-Day Cup League 2 (Tier 2)

Derbyshire Falcons, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire Foxes, Middlesex, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Sussex Sharks, Worcestershire Rapids