Croft bemoans 'stupid' schedule as county review gathers pace

Lancashire coach Steven Croft believes a "stupid" schedule contributed to a hamstring injury that will sideline Liam Livingstone for the rest of the T20 Blast group stages, as counties weigh up a potential reduction in the volume of cricket that they play for 2026.

Livingstone pulled his hamstring during Lancashire's win over Derbyshire on Saturday afternoon, their second T20 fixture in the space of 24 hours after winning at Northamptonshire on Friday. Their team bus only arrived back in Manchester at 3.30am on Saturday morning due to traffic on the M1, and they were back on the field at 3pm later that day.

Saqib Mahmood also left the field during Saturday's game, and Croft - who took over from Dale Benkenstein on an interim basis in May - said that the schedule was "a bit of a mess". He told LancsTV: "They're some of the world's best players out there… It feels pretty stupid and silly, and is putting the players at risk. We saw two players walk off the field through injury."

On Livingstone, Croft said: "It might have gone at any time, but getting minimal sleep and such a quick turnaround to play elite sport is a tough one… I probably wouldn't say it's all down to the schedule - it might be - but it's not helped one bit for that player who's walked off, and looks like it might be a bit of a lengthy time on the sidelines.

"It is something that seriously needs to be looked at… We're aware that we've got four competitions in the country, so you can't really extend the season any more. That is the county grind, as people say… You feel like if something doesn't happen, we're not going to get the best players on the park."

The Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) has lobbied for a reduction in back-to-back T20 fixtures, where the same team plays twice on consecutive days. But they are still commonplace in the Blast, in which the majority of fixtures are played from Thursday to Sunday, and there are signs that any changes to the men's domestic schedule for 2026 will only be incremental.

The Blast appears set to return to three groups of six - rather than two groups of nine - next year, with each team playing 12 matches (including two inter-group fixtures) rather than 14. The quarter-finals and Finals Day will also be brought forward to July from September, meaning the competition will finish before the Hundred rather than being split in half by it.

There is less clarity on the future of the County Championship: counties are discussing a handful of options for next year's format, some of which involve a reduction to 12 matches per team while others maintain the existing number of 14. Somerset and Surrey have both publicly backed a 14-match season, with an eight-team Division One and a ten-team Division Two.

"There is so much potential for the competition to grow its fanbase," Surrey's chair, Oli Slipper, and chief executive, Steve Elworthy, said in a joint statement, noting the strong attendances at The Oval this year. "The red-ball game needs all the counties to get behind it, to prioritise it and to promote it. It is a unique and historic sporting competition, and we should embrace it for the benefit of the whole game."

The review into county scheduling is being run by the Professional Game Committee, a subcommittee authorised by the ECB board and chaired by Warwickshire chair Mark McCafferty. A decision on the 2026 schedule is anticipated later this month, and any changes would require the support of 12 out of the 18 first-class counties.