Find out dates, overseas players, points structure, previous winners, TV and streaming information, odds and much more for the 2024 County Championship season
Looking for the latest from the opening weekend of the County Championship? It's all here in The Cricketer's County hub.
The County Championship is the first-class cricket domestic competition for England and Wales.
The County Championship takes place at county grounds across England and Wales.
The County Championship became official in 1890. The competition features 18 teams, which represent counties across England and Wales. There are 17 counties from England and one from Wales. The competition started with eight teams and over time added counties. The Championship was split into two divisions in 2000, with the introduction of promotion and. As at the start of the 2023 campaign, there are 10 teams in Division One and eight in Division Two.
The first winner was Surrey in 1890 and the most recent was also Surrey in 2023. Yorkshire have 33 titles, as the most successful side in the tournament's history.
Middlesex and Northamptonshire were relegated to Division Two in 2023
Durham and Worcestershire were promoted to Division One.
Division One: Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Durham, Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey, Warwickshire
Division Two: Derbyshire, Middlesex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Sussex, Worcestershire, Yorkshire
2023- Surrey
2022- Surrey
2021- Warwickshire
2020- No winner
2019- Essex
2018- Surrey
2017- Essex
2016- Middlesex
Related: County Championship fixtures 2024: Full schedule, dates
A team is awarded 16 points for a win and eight for a draw - which is an increase from the five points awarded for a drawn match last season. Once batting and bowling bonus points are included, there is a maximum of 24 points available each match.
In 2024, the threshold for batting points has remained the same. Teams will only start accumulating batting bonus points from 250 runs, and in 50-run increments thereafter. Bonus points are only available in the opening 110 overs of the first innings of matches.
Batting points
250 to 299 runs - 1 point
300 to 349 runs - 2 points
350 to 399 runs - 3 points
400 to 349 runs - 4 points
450 runs or over - 5 points
Bowling points
3 to 5 wickets taken - 1 point
6 to 8 wickets taken - 2 points
9 to 10 wickets taken - 3 points
Nottinghamshire's Brett Hutton led the way with the ball in 2023 - taking 63 Championship wickets (Getty Images)
The competition runs across the summer, with the majority of the matches taking place in April, May and September, though there are also rounds in June and July.
Every county will play 14 matches in the Championship each season, although not every team will be involved in every match week.
Round 1: April 5-8
Round 2: April 12-15
Round 3: April 19-22
Round 4: April 26-29
Round 5: May 3-6
Round 6: May 10-13
Round 7: May 17-20
Round 8: May 24-27
Round 9: June 23-26
Round 10: June 30- July 3
Round 11: August 22-25
Round 12: August 29 - September 1
Round 13: September 9-12
Round 14: September 17-20
Round 16: September 26-29
Surrey are favourites to win this season with odds of 9/5 while Essex are just behind at 6/1.
To win Division One
Surrey 9/5
Essex 6/1
Lancashire 8/1
Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire 9/1
Hampshire 10/1
Somerset 12/1
Durham 20/1
Kent 33/1
Worcestershire 50/1
To win Division Two
Yorkshire 21/10
Sussex 6/1
Middlesex, Northamptonshire 6/1
Glamorgan 7/1
Leicestershire 11/1
Derbyshire 14/1
Gloucestershire 20/1
Josh Bohannon led the way in the run-scoring charts, hitting 1,257 for mid-table Lancashire (Getty Images)
Related: County cricket ins and outs 2024: Signings, transfers, squad updates
Each team in the league can have two overseas players playing in any given game.
Overseas player breakdown below...
Derbyshire: Blair Tickner (New Zealand, April-July 4)
Durham: David Bedingham (South Africa), Scott Boland (Australia, April-July)
Essex: Dean Elgar (South Africa), Simon Harmer (South Africa)
Glamorgan: Mir Hamza (Pakistan, seven matches – Apil-May), Colin Ingram (South Africa), Marnus Labuschagne (Australia)
Gloucestershire: Cameron Bancroft (Australia), Zafar Gohar (Pakistan), Beau Webster (Australia, June-July)
Hampshire: Mohammad Abbas (Pakistan), Kyle Abbott (South Africa), Michael Neser (Australia, June)
Kent: Wes Agar (Australia, April-July), Beyers Swanepoel (South Africa (May-September)
Lancashire: Tom Bruce (New Zealand), Nathan Lyon (Australia, seven matches – April-July)
Leicestershire: Peter Handscomb (Australia), Wiaan Mulder (South Africa, May-September ), Marcus Harris (Australia, five matches – April-May)
Middlesex: N/A
Northamptonshire: Karun Nair (India, seven matches – April-May), Prithvi Shaw (India, from June), Chris Tremain (Australia, four matches – April)
Nottinghamshire: Dane Paterson (South Africa), Will Young (New Zealand, April-July)
Somerset: Matt Renshaw (Australia, seven matches – April-May)
Surrey: Sean Abbott (Australia, May-June) Kemar Roach (West Indies, April-May)
Sussex: Daniel Hughes (Australia, from June), Nathan McAndrew (Australia, June-July) Cheteshwar Pujara (India, April-May), Jayden Seales (West Indies, April-June 8), Jaydev Unadkat (India, five matches – August-September)
Warwickshire: Hassan Ali (Pakistan, April-July)
Worcestershire: Yadvinder Singh (India) Nathan Smith (New Zealand), Jason Holder (West Indies, five matches – April-May)
Yorkshire: Shan Masood (Pakistan)
The broadcast rights to the County Championship in the UK are owned by Sky Sports.
However, as with previous summers on a very limited number of matches are expected to broadcast.
Sky permit the counties to broadcast their games live via streams on YouTube - with the quality of each county's broadcast capabilities having now reached a good standard. All 18 counties now offer high-quality live-streaming options, with some having in-house commentary teams.
BBC Local Radio offers ball-by-ball commentary on all matches, which is also available via the BBC Sport website.
The Cricketer will carry match reports from every day of county cricket in 2023, with our staff in place to offer expert analysis at county grounds throughout the season.
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