The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has today announced changes to the formats of the Vitality Blast men’s competition, the Vitality Blast women’s competitions (Tiers 1 & 2) and the Metro Bank One-Day Cup women’s competitions (Tiers 1 & 2) from next season.
A summary of the changes are included below and Derbyshire Members have been sent, via email, a letter from the Board of Directors detailing the Club’s position.
Vitality Blast men’s competition
The required majority of the 18 PCCs voted to reduce the number of Vitality Blast men’s competition group-stage matches from 14 to 12 from next season.
The reduction follows the recommendations of the county-led men’s Domestic Playing Programme (DPP) review, which will also see the Vitality Blast men’s competition revert to three groups of six counties, with the quarter-finals and men’s Vitality Blast Finals Day played before The Hundred.
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.
Group-stage matches
Each county will play the other counties in their group on a home-and-away basis – a total of 10 matches. They will additionally play one home game against a county from outside their group and one away game against a county from outside their group.
This will allow counties to play against all 18 counties, over time, on a rolling basis during the group stage of the competition.
Knockout stage
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 men’s Vitality Blast Finals Day.
Women’s white-ball county competitions
Yorkshire will move from Tier 2 into Tier 1 from the 2026 season which will mean an even split of nine counties in each of those two tiers next season.
The total number of Tier 1 group-stage matches across the women’s Vitality Blast and women’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup is retained at 28. The split of Tier 1 group-stage matches will change with 12 women’s Vitality Blast matches (down from 14) and 16 women’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup matches (up from 14).
The Tier 2 group-stage matches across both white-ball competitions will be reduced from 17 to 16 group-stage matches, with each county to play each other once in each competition during the group phase.
Vitality Blast Women’s League 2 (Tier 2)
Group: Derbyshire Falcons, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire Foxes, Middlesex, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Sussex Sharks, Worcestershire Rapids.
Group-stage matches
Each county will play eight group-stage matches – four home and four away. They will play each county either home or away.
Knockout stage
The top three counties at the end of the group stage will progress to Vitality Blast Women’s League 2 Finals Day, which will include an Eliminator and Final.
Metro Bank One-Day Cup Women’s League 2 (Tier 2)
Group: Derbyshire Falcons, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire Foxes, Middlesex, Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Sussex Sharks, Worcestershire Rapids.
Group-stage matches
Each county will play eight group-stage matches – four home and four away. They will play each county either home or away.
Knockout stage
The top four counties at the end of the group stage will progress to the knockouts stages. The winners of the two semi-finals progress to the final.
