Counties have dictated the 2020 schedule, says Colin Graves

The ECB chairman says after a hectic 2019 the counties themselves have been allowed to shape the season - with a fourth different format to accommodate

Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, claims the 18 counties have shaped the schedule for the 2020 season.

Partly due to the World Cup and the increasing prominence of the Blast, less than a quarter of the red-ball campaign was played between June and August this year.

Next year sees The Hundred join the fixture list, alongside the Championship, the downgraded One-Day Cup and the T20 Blast.

But to assist in delivering a calendar which suits everyone, the ECB have handed some of the responsibility for shaping the schedule over to the clubs.

"This year was an odd exception with the World Cup year," Graves told the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport select commitee. 

"It was very difficult fitting all schedules in to fit the World Cup around everything else that we were doing in English cricket.

"Next year, from 2020 onwards, the schedule has been put together by the stakeholders - by the counties. They got together between them, we didn't impose anything on them.

"We said 'you go away and you come back with a schedule which you want to have running the game of cricket, which is what you do'.

"So the schedule for 2020 is what the counties have put together themselves."

The full fixture list for all four competitions is due to be confirmed in November.

Some details over next year's domestic schedule are already known, with the first edition of The Hundred taking place from July 17 to August 16.

The Blast group stage will therefore be moved away from the middle of the summer, with the final set for September 5 at Edgbaston.

The One-Day Cup will be played behind The Hundred in July and August, with the final penned in for September 19 at Trent Bridge.