County Championship set for five rounds in mid-summer 2022

There is set to be more County Championship cricket scheduled for mid-summer in 2022 as the ECB react to England’s struggles in Test cricket.

A surfeit of seam-friendly conditions has been blamed for some of England’s struggles in producing top-order batters, spinners and fast bowlers in recent years.

The ECB hope that by playing more games in mid-summer, they can provide flatter pitches that will mirror conditions seen in Test cricket and encourage the use of spinners and fast bowlers. They also hope it will aid the development of more conventional batting techniques and batters with the temperament to bat for a long time.

As a result, the draft schedule which has been sent to counties suggests they are set to play two rounds of County Championship cricket in June and three in July in 2022. By contrast, there was one round scheduled for June in 2021 (it started on June 3) and two rounds scheduled for July. There was then a break before the competition resumed on August 30. There was no Championship cricket at all between July 15 and August 29 in 2021.

^{The men's Hundred is set to start on August 3 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)}

While the move is likely to be welcomed by lovers of the longer formats, it is not perfect. There is still no Championship cricket scheduled for August, which may limit England’s options if they need to send for players during their Test series against South Africa which starts on August 17.

There are also still seven rounds of Championship cricket scheduled before the end of May in 2022 (there were eight in 2021) and four more in September. The Championship season starts on April 7 and is scheduled to end on September 29. There is no Bob Will Trophy in the schedule.

Meanwhile, the men’s Hundred competition is set to start on August 3 – two days after the start of the Royal London One-Day Cup – with the T20 Blast set to start on May 25.

Finals Day will be July 16, with the 17th held in reserve. The cricket part of the Commonwealth Games is scheduled to be played between July 29 and August 7.

The schedule has yet to be finalised but few changes are anticipated.