The ECB40, last known as the Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40) for sponsorship reasons, was a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the

2010 English cricket season The 2010 English cricket season was the 111th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. It began on 29 March with the Champion County match between Durham County Cricket Club and an MCC side, and ended on 18 September ...

as a replacement for the

Pro40 The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on days ...

and

Friends Provident Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. La ...

competitions. Yorkshire Bank were the last sponsors, taking over the naming rights from their parent company

Clydesdale Bank Clydesdale Bank ( gd, Banca Dhail Chluaidh) is a trading name used by Clydesdale Bank plc for its retail banking operations in Scotland. In June 2018, it was announced that Clydesdale Bank's holding company CYBG would acquire Virgin Money for ...

for the 2013 edition.

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

won the inaugural tournament. The competition was replaced by a 50-over tournament, to bring the domestic game in line with the international game from

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

on—the

Royal London One-Day Cup The Royal London One-Day Cup is a fifty-over limited overs cricket competition for the England and Wales first-class counties. It began in 2014 as a replacement for the ECB 40 tournament, which ran from 2010 to 2013. In contrast to its 40-ove ...

History

In 2009, in light of the growth of

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

cricket with the

Twenty20 Cup The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

and

ICC World Twenty20 The ICC Men's T20 World Cup (earlier known as ICC World Twenty20) is the international championship of Twenty20. Organised by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the tournament consists of 16 teams, comprising t ...

, the ECB realised that the Pro40 and Friends Provident Trophy were attracting less interest. Plans began to consolidate the List A competitions into a single 40-over trophy. The competition began in the

with

, previously sponsor of the Twenty20 Cup, agreeing to a three-year sponsorship. John Perera, ECB commercial director, stated that "We are delighted to welcome Clydesdale Bank as the title sponsor for the 40-over competition particularly as it gives us an opportunity to build on an already strong working relationship. The Clydesdale Bank 40 is an exciting new competition and the format is designed to comfortably fit into the busy family weekend."

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, were asked to compete, following their entry in the Friends Provident Trophy, but Ireland declined in order to concentrate on their growing international commitments;

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took their place.Geoffrey Dean, Ivo Tennant, Patrick Kidd.
Dispute overshadows first sighting of Unicorns
', 2 May 2010, www.timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved on 3 May 2010. A new team, the

Unicorns cricket team Unicorns were a cricket team in England that was formed in 2010 specifically to play in the Clydesdale Bank 40 limited overs competition. They played in that competition until 2013 and from 2014 to 2018 the Unicorns team competed in the Second XI ...

, was formed of contractless county players to compete, unpaid, alongside the 18 first-class counties, Scotland and the Netherlands.Bolton, Pau
Wes Durston to play for Unicorns
8 April 2010, www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 2 May 2010.

beat

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in the final of the inaugural 2010 tournament. The format for the 2011 competition was kept the same, despite calls for the number of county matches to be reduced; fewer group matches were proposed for the 2012 season, with the addition of a quarter-final knock-out round.

Unicorns The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicor ...

competed, and held a fresh set of trials over the winter period.

Participating teams and format

The competition contained three groups of seven. A random draw was used to place the teams into groups. The top team of each group, together with the second best team across all three groups, progressed to two semi-finals, the winners of which faced off in the final for the trophy. The participating teams were the 18 first-class counties plus

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

. * Derbyshire Falcons * Durham Dynamos * Essex Eagles * Glamorgan * Gloucestershire Gladiators * Hampshire Royals * Kent Spitfires * Lancashire Lightning * Leicestershire Foxes * Middlesex Panthers *

* Northamptonshire Steelbacks *

Nottinghamshire Outlaws Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called the ...

Scottish Saltires The Scotland national cricket team represents the country of Scotland. They play their home matches at The Grange, Edinburgh, and also some other venues. Scotland became Associate Members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1994

* Surrey * Sussex Sharks *

* Warwickshire Bears * Worcestershire Royals * Yorkshire Vikings

Results

Records

Team

*Most runs in an innings: 399/4, Sussex Sharks v Worcestershire Royals, 14 August 2011. *Most runs batting second: 337/7, Kent Spitfires v Sussex Sharks, 19 June 2013 (world record in 40-over game). *Lowest total in an innings: 57,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, 8 June 2012.

Individual

*Most runs in an innings: 180,

Ryan ten Doeschate Ryan Neil ten Doeschate (; born 30 June 1980) is a former Dutch–South African cricketer who played for the Netherlands national cricket team in One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket. Ten Doeschate was named ICC ...

for Essex Eagles v

, 2 June 2013. *Most runs in a tournament: 861,

Jacques Rudolph Jacobus Andries "Jacques" Rudolph (born 4 May 1981) is a former South African cricketer who played for Glamorgan and in South Africa with Titans. He attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, a popular and renowned public school located in Pretoria ...

for

Yorkshire Carnegie Leeds Tykes (formerly Leeds RUFC, Leeds Carnegie and Yorkshire Carnegie) is an English rugby union club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the National League 1. The club was founded as Headingley FC, but renamed in 1991 when it j ...

(2010). *Best bowling figures: 7/29, David Payne for Gloucestershire Gladiators v Essex Eagles, 9 May 2010 (including a hat-trick). *Most wickets in a tournament: 28, Michael Hogan for Glamorgan (2013).

References

{{ECB 40 seasons English domestic cricket competitions Professional 40-over cricket competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2010 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2013 List A cricket competitions