County Cricket

County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales, currently consisting of 17 first class English counties and one Welsh, although Glamorgan is generally classed as an English county in cricketing terms. The eighteen first-class counties are the main cricket teams in England, competing in three competitions covering three formats of the game: the four day County Championship, the one-day ECB 40 and the Natwest t20 Blast.

The current teams competing in county cricket are Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire. Teams from Scotland and the Netherlands also compete in the ECB 40 competition. 

The County Championship is the top-tier of domestic first-class cricket in England and Wales, consisting of the 18 first class counties competing in a two-division league format. The most successful county in the County Championship has been Yorkshire having won the competition on 30 occasions, as well as one shared title. Originally played over three days, County Championship games have been played over four days since 1992. Durham have been the most successful side in recent years, winning three championships in six years. 

The ECB 40 is the one-day cricket competition in county cricket, originally introduced in 2010 to replace the previous 40-over tournament and the 50-over Friends Provident Trophy. Joining the 18 counties in the competition are Scotland and the Netherlands, with the 20 teams then are split into three groups. The team finishing top of each league plus the second-placed team with the best record then compete in semi-finals, the winners of which qualify for the final to decide the winner. The competition is played during the English cricket season from April until September. 

The t20 format of the game was introduced in 2010, replacing the Twenty20 Cup as English cricket's top tier T20 competition. The tournament is due to change its name to the Natwest t20 Blast in 2014. The tournament consists of the 18 first-class counties split into three regions: North, South and Midlands/West/Wales. The three top teams from the North and South, along with the top two from the Midlands/West/Wales meet in the quarter-finals, with the four winning teams progressing to Finals Day, where the semi-finals and then the final are played. Leicestershire have been the most successful team in the competition, winning the tournament on three occasions since the first Twenty20 competition in 2003. 

For all the latest County Cricket Betting Tips place check out betting.betfair