The One-Day Cup is a fifty-over limited overs cricket competition for the England and Wales first-class counties. It began in

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as a replacement for the

ECB 40 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 as a replacement for the Pro40 ...

tournament, which ran from 2010 to 2013. In contrast to its 40-over predecessor, the number of overs per innings was set at 50 to bring the competition in line with

One-Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

s. The 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Participating teams and format

The competition begins with a round-robin tournament featuring two groups of nine. The groups were organised geographically with a North group and a South group until 2021, since when the groups have decided by a draw. As of 2023, the top three teams in each group progress to the knock-out stage of the competition. The final was held at Lord's until 2020, when it was moved to

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also ...

Predecessors

The One-Day Cup is the latest in a line of limited over competitions in county cricket. It has been title-sponsored by Royal London and Metro Bank.

Sunday League

The "John Player League" was launched in 1969, as the second one-day competition in England and Wales alongside the Gillette Cup (launched in 1963). The 17 counties of the time played each other in a league format on Sunday afternoons throughout the season. These matches were concise enough to be shown on television, with BBC2 broadcasting one match each week in full until the 1980s, and then as part of the '' Sunday Grandstand'' multi-sport programme. For close finishes for the title, cameras appeared at the grounds where the contenders for the title were competing and the trophy presentation to the victorious team would be on film. Refuge Assurance replaced John Player as the sponsor of the competition in 1987 and then in 1988 started an end-of-season play-off competition known as the Refuge Assurance Cup. The top four teams of the season qualified for this competition, with the first-placed team playing the fourth and the second-placed team playing the third, and the winners of these matches meeting in a final at a

neutral venue In team sports, the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home-field advantage, home court, home-court advantage, defender's advantage or home-ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home team is said to ga ...

. This competition lasted until 1991. On Friday 5 July 1991,

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played

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

in the first Sunday League match not to be played on a Sunday. The Sunday League was not sponsored in 1992, the year

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

made its debut, but in 1993 AXA Equity and Law became the sponsor. The matches this season were 50 overs per innings. The first round of matches that took place on 9 May 1993 were the first official matches in England to be played in coloured clothing and with a white ball. The following season the competition reverted to 40 overs per innings. On Wednesday 23 July 1997

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 ...

played Somerset at

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

in the first competitive county game to be played under floodlights.

National League

The National League was launched in 1999 with the 18 first-class counties split into two divisions with three teams promoted and relegated between the two divisions. The matches were played over 45 overs and the competition was sponsored by

Norwich Union Norwich Union was the name of insurance company Aviva's British arm before June 2009. It was originally established in 1797. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. On 29 April 2008, Aviva ...

. Matches were spread over the week rather than Sundays only. The counties incorporated nicknames into their official names for the National League. For example, Kent became the 'Spitfires', Middlesex the 'Crusaders' and Lancashire the 'Lightning'. Starting the following season the Scotland Saltires took part in the League until 2005. In 2006, the National League was renamed the "NatWest Pro40" and was played in the later part of the season with the teams playing each other once. Also, two teams instead of three were promoted to the first division and two relegated to the second division. A third promotion/relegation spot is determined in a play-off game between the team third from top in the second division and third from bottom team in the first. The format continued until 2009.

ECB40

The ECB40, known variously as the "Clydesdale Bank 40" and "Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40)", 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 ...

, incorporating the league element of 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 the knockout stages of the

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 ...

, itself a successor to the Gillette Cup.

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. 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 uncontracted county players competing unpaid, bringing the number of teams to 21. These three extra teams would not go on to feature in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

Winners

Notes

References

{{List A cricket domestic competitions 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 Professional sports leagues in the United Kingdom