The 2024 County Championship (referred to as the Vitality County Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 124th
County Championship cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
season in
England and
Wales.
As in
2023
Events
Predicted and scheduled events
* January 1
** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law.
** Croatia will adopt the eu ...
, Division One had ten teams and Division Two had eight teams. The season began on 5 April and ended on 29 September 2024.
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
won the title with one match remaining, repeating their success in
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...
and 2023.
They were the first team to become champions in three successive years since
Yorkshire in 1966–68, having last achieved this feat themselves in
1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
.
Overview
For the 2024 season, the number of points for a draw was increased from five to eight, as was the case from 2019 to 2022.
The use of hybrid
pitches was permitted for the first time, despite previous concerns that they do not deteriorate enough during a four-day match and are therefore suitable only for
limited overs cricket
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...
.
On 29 August, however, the game between
Gloucestershire and
Northamptonshire at
Bristol had to be abandoned on the first day after the surface produced uneven bounce, resulting in two Northamptonshire batters being injured.
In research carried out by the
Professional Cricketers' Association
The Professional Cricketers' Association is the representative body of past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales, founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey (when it was known as the Cricketers' Association). In ...
prior to the start of the season, concerns were expressed about players' welfare due to the congested schedule (including the
T20 Blast,
One-Day Cup, and
The Hundred The 100 may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* 100 (DC Comics), fictional organized crime groups appearing in DC Comics
* ''The 100'' (novel series), a 2013–2016 science fiction novel series written by Kass Morgan
* ''The 100'' (TV series), 20 ...
).
The Kookaburra debate
Following a trial during the 2023 County Championship, when the traditional English
Dukes ball
A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...
was replaced for two rounds by the less
bowler-friendly Australian
Kookaburra, the
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) decided that four rounds of the 2024 season would be played with the latter. The motivation behind this was to develop bowlers with the skills to compete at an international level, give
spinners more of a role at the beginning of the season, and encourage
batters to score quickly.
After the Kookaburra had been used during the first two rounds of the 2024 season,
England men's team director
Rob Key hailed the experiment a success. Spin bowlers contributed 37% (1035.4
over
Over may refer to:
Places
*Over, Cambridgeshire, England
*Over, Cheshire, England
*Over, South Gloucestershire, England
* Over, Tewkesbury, near Gloucester, England
** Over Bridge
*Over, Seevetal, Germany
Music
Albums
* ''Over'' (album), by Pe ...
s) of deliveries in the opening two rounds, compared with 17% (767.3 overs) in 2023, and took 135 (72 more)
wickets. Batters hit as many double
centuries as in whole of the previous season, and in the second round accumulated 10 scores of 150 or more, which was a record for a set of matches starting on the same day. However, all but one of the 19 games played in the opening two rounds ended in a draw.
In the second round, all matches were drawn for just the third time when all counties have played simultaneously,
and matches were criticised for being dull.
Key's comments themselves "caused something of a furore".
Writing in ''
Wisden Cricket Monthly'',
Laurence Booth
Lawrence Booth ( – 1480) served as Prince-Bishop of Durham and Lord Chancellor of England, before being appointed Archbishop of York.
Life
The illegitimate son of John Booth, lord of the manor of Barton, near Eccles, Lancashire, he ...
noted that using the Kookaburra on spongy pitches during one of the UK's wettest springs was "like mixing oil with water – and expecting nectar", but pointed to the first-round performance of
seam bowler
Seam bowling is a bowling technique in cricket whereby the ball is deliberately bowled on to its seam, to cause a random deviation when the ball bounces. Practitioners are known as ''seam bowlers'' or seamers.
Seam bowling is generally classed ...
Sam Cook in explaining Key's perspective.
Mike Selvey commented in ''
The Cricketer'' that rather than resorting to the use of a "substandard ball", Key's objectives might better be achieved by requiring groundsmen to cut the grass shorter and use a hard roller on pitches, whilst also making some changes to the Dukes ball so that the seam would flatten more quickly.
Teams
The teams were split based on the finishing positions in the
2023 season
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
, with 10 teams in Division One and 8 in Division Two.
Division One sides played five teams both home and away, and four teams either home or away. All Division Two sides played each other home and away.
Teams were allowed to field a maximum of two overseas players in a match.
Division One
Team promoted from Division Two in 2023
Division Two
Team relegated from Division One in 2023
Division One results
April
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May
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June
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August
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September
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Division Two results
April
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May
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June
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August
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September
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Standings
Teams in both divisions played a total of 14 games, with seven home matches and seven away matches. There was a two-up, two-down promotion and relegation system.
Teams received 16 points for a win, and 8 for a draw or tie.
Bonus points could be earned during the first 110 overs of each team's first innings, with up to 5 for batting and 3 for bowling available.
If a match was abandoned without a ball being bowled, then each team was awarded 8 points. If abandoned once a game has started because the pitch was deemed to be unsafe, then the home side received no points. The away side were awarded 8 points plus whatever bonus points had accrued.
Division One
Division Two
Leading players
Division One
Division Two
Ethan Bamber
Ethan Read Bamber (born 17 December 1998) is an English cricketer. Bamber signed a professional contract with Middlesex in 2018. He made his first-class debut for Middlesex in the 2018 County Championship on 17 August 2018. Prior to his first-cl ...
(Middlesex) and
James Harris (
Glamorgan
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
) also took 30 wickets, but had a higher average than Ryan Higgins.
Notes
References
External links
Division 1 at ESPNcricinfoDivision 2 at ESPNcricinfo
{{English cricket seasons
2024
Predicted and scheduled events
* January 1
** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law.
***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...
County Championship
County Championship