The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) remains at loggerheads with the ECB over the schedule for the men’s T20 Blast. The union, which represents all professional players in England and Wales, has reiterated its concerns for player welfare after only a small reduction in the number of consecutive matchdays in the 2025 calendar presented by the ECB on Thursday.
The ECB announced in a press release on Thursday a reduction of “almost a third” in the number of consecutive matches (from 55 in 2024 to 37 in 2025) in the men’s Blast. Neil Snowball, the ECB’s director general of competitions and major events, said the reduction showed they had “listened to the players” after “constructive discussions with the PCA”.
But while the PCA is “encouraged” by the changes, it believes they do not go far enough. “A significant number of matches remain on successive days, suggesting little improvement compared to the 2023 schedule,” a spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo. “Much more work is needed to meet the welfare needs of players.”
Counties generally prefer to play the majority of their Blast matches between Thursday and Sunday, citing a beneficial impact on ticket sales. But players have increasingly expressed in the last 18 months the drawbacks of that model, with consecutive games increasing the risk of injury and decreasing the quality of cricket played.
The PCA is represented by interim chief executive Daryl Mitchell on the Professional Gaming Committee, who approves the national calendar and is involved in discussions on the fixture list before it is published.
The ECB’s revamp of domestic women’s cricket by 2025 will see all eight tier one women’s teams compete in the Women’s T20 Blast and all ten tier two teams in a second tier. Each county will host at least one joint men’s and women’s matchday, with a total of 52 double matches to be held at 20 different venues.
Snowball said the Blast will be “bigger and better” in 2025, while Beth Barrett-Wild, director of the women’s professional game, said the joint announcement of the matches marked “the beginning of a new era” for English cricket: “It is one of the clearest demonstrations to date of our aligned ‘one game’ approach to the advancement of men’s and women’s domestic cricket.”
The first women’s Blast Finals Day will take place at The Oval on July 27, while the men’s knockout stages will continue to take place in September, six weeks after the conclusion of the group stage. England’s top white-ball players will again miss the men’s Finals Day, which is scheduled for September 13 and coincides with a T20I series against South Africa.
The ECB will publish the remainder of the county men’s matches on Tuesday morning, with no change to the volume of County Championship and One-Day Cup matches. The Hundred matches are likely to be released early next year, with the tournament taking place in its usual August window.
T20 Blast 2025 key schedule:
May 29 – June 1 – ‘Blast Off’ weekend (opening matches)
July 18 – ‘Friday Finale’ (final matches of the group stage)
July 26 – Level 2 Women’s Final Day (Northampton)
July 27 – Women’s Level 1 Finals Day (The Oval)
September 3-6 – Men’s quarterfinals
September 13 – Men’s Final Day (Edgbaston)
