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| Reuters |
All 18 first-class counties will host at least one women’s and men’s Vitality Blast double header next season after the schedule for a historic 2025 domestic T20 summer was revealed today.
The 2025 season will be the first time all women’s and men’s county teams will play side by side in the Vitality Blast, the original domestic T20 cricket comptition that delivers fast-paced and explosive action in front of passionate and diverse fans across England and Wales.
And while the Vitality Blast men’s competition enters its 22nd year, next season it will be bigger and better than ever before with the women’s teams playing in two Vitality Blast competitions – one contested by the eight counties from Tier One (playing alongside the men in the Vitality Blast) and the second featuring the 10 remaining counties (Vitality Blast Women’s League 2).
A total of 52 women’s and men’s double headers will be staged across 20 venues next season.
The Blast-Off weekend (29 May – 1 June) will kick-start the new-look competition with 10 double headers and all eight of the Vitality Blast women’s competition counties involved. Rivals Week will also continue in the men’s competition with the oldest county rivalries taking centre stage.
The group stage will then come to a high-stakes conclusion with ‘Friday Finale’ on 18 July. ‘Friday Finale’ will see the women race for the three Finals Day spots while the men have a last chance to book their place in the quarter-finals with eight men’s matches scheduled and all eight women’s counties in action on what promises to be a thrilling night.
Vitality Blast Men’s Finals Day is now established as one of the unmissable days of the cricket calendar and fans need to act fast to secure their place with only a limited number of tickets left for the Saturday 13 September showpiece at Edgbaston.
The first-ever Vitality Blast Women’s Finals Day will be staged at the Kia Oval on Sunday 27 July with fans who want to enjoy the unique Finals Day atmosphere able to register their interest, here.
ECB Director of the Women’s Professional Game, Beth Barrett-Wild, said: "It's so exciting to announce Vitality Blast women's fixtures alongside the men's fixtures. It's one of the clearest demonstrations to date of our aligned ‘one game’ approach to the delivery of men's and women's domestic cricket moving forwards, truly marking the beginning of a new era for professional cricket - one with gender balance at its core - in this country."
After consultation with the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) the Vitality Blast Men’s competition will be balanced with more matches played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights to move towards meeting player welfare requirements, while also allowing a healthy number of fan-friendly timeslots.
Next season there are 17 scheduled Vitality Blast men’s competition matches on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and increase from five last summer. The number of back-to-back games has also been reduced by almost a third for next season.
ECB Managing Director of Competitions and Major Events, Neil Snowball, said: “The Vitality Blast is going to be bigger and better next season with the introduction of two women’s competitions and some key dates in the domestic calendar from the Blast-Off weekend, to Friday Finale and of course Finals Day for the men’s and women’s competitions.
“The Vitality Blast will be played at at least 25 venues across England and Wales next season which will give more people even more opportunity to watch high-quality men’s and women’s T20 county cricket.
“It has also been important that while putting the schedule together we have listened to the players by reducing the number of back-to-back games in the men’s competition. We have had constructive conversations with the PCA to meet those understandable needs while also balancing the commercial value of the Vitality Blast to counties.
“There is real anticipation for next season as first-time men's winners Gloucestershire aim to defend their title while we will have a first women’s champion crowned at the Kia Oval on 27 July.”
Today's fixture announcement follows confirmation in September that the women's domestic T20 competitions would be renamed and aligned with the men’s competition in collaboration with health and life insurer Vitality, as they continue to work with the ECB to invest in, grow and support the women’s game, seeking to inspire many more women and girls to play and watch the game.
The new professional structure will see £8m new funding per year being invested into women’s domestic cricket by 2027 – taking annual investment in this area to c.£19m – and could produce an 80% increase in the number of professional female players in England and Wales by 2029.
Neville Koopowitz, CEO at Vitality, said: “Today’s announcement details some of the changes happening within cricket, and reflects our dedication to working closely with the ECB to bring about further growth within women’s cricket and women’s sport in general.
“In renaming the women’s game to the Vitality Blast earlier this year, and now making these further changes to the competition, we are able to better showcase women’s cricket, further aligning it to the men’s game, which will make it more accessible and increase visibility of it across the country. This has the potential to positively impact participation rates in the game and sport more generally, resulting in healthier lives, which aligns perfectly with our core purpose - to make people healthier and to enhance and protect lives.”
- ECB & Cricket World
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