T20 Blast group schedule for 2017 unveiled
Thursday 24 November 2016 18:24, UK
The 2017 NatWest T20 Blast will dominate the domestic cricket agenda at the height of summer next year, after a change in the schedule was unveiled by the ECB.
The event will begin on Friday July 7 and the teams will play all of their 14 qualifying matches over the following seven weeks.
This means the qualifying action will all be played out in a concentrated period, rather than spread out over three months as was previously the case.
ECB chief executive officer Tom Harrison, said: "The NatWest T20 Blast will have a very different feel, being played in a block of matches during the school holiday months of July and August."
Northamptonshire Steelbacks triumphed in the Blast for the second time in four years back in August and they will be at home on opening night against a Derbyshire Falcons team who have named former New Zealand batsman John Wright as their first specialist T20 coach.
Last year's beaten finalists Durham start at home to Lancashire Lightning and will begin their campaign with a four-point deduction, part of a series of sanctions which are a consequence of the financial bailout package the county received at the end of the 2016 campaign.
The Roses derbies between Lancashire and Yorkshire, one of the domestic calendar's hottest tickets, are scheduled for Emirates Old Trafford on July 14 and Headingley on August 11.
Group matches take place between July 7 and August 6, followed by one round of Specsavers County Championship fixtures, before a second dedicated T20 Blast window from August 10-18. A total of 75 group games will be played under floodlights.
The top four teams in the North and South groups will qualify for the semi finals, which will be played on four consecutive evenings from August 22-25, with the winners advancing to Finals Day at Edgbaston on September 2.
