Leicestershire cricketers celebrating
Leicestershire (pictured celebrating their semi-final win in 2011) have won the joint-most English Twenty20 titles, winning on three occasions.

The English Twenty20 cricket champions are the winners of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Twenty20 competition for first-class cricket counties, most recently the Friends Life t20, although from 2014 this has been replaced with the NatWest t20 Blast. The competition culminates with 'Finals Day': a single day on which both semi-finals and the final are contested at the same ground.[1] Somerset are the current champions, claiming their second title in the 2023 season.

Twenty20 cricket was developed by the ECB to attract new, younger audiences to cricket.[2] Replacing the 50 overs-per-side 'Benson & Hedges Cup',[3] the 'Twenty20 Cup' was introduced in 2003, and was over two hours shorter than its predecessor, and matches also featured greater entertainment off the field, such as live music, barbecues, fancy dress and karaoke.[4] The competition was rebranded as the 'Friends Provident t20' in 2010,[5] and a season later as the 'Friends Life t20'.[6] In 2014, the competition became known as the NatWest t20 Blast. For the first seven years of the competition, teams were allowed one overseas player, as in the other domestic tournaments, but from the 2010 season, each team was allowed two.[7] The finalists in both 2009 and 2011 qualified for the Champions League Twenty20, an international competition between the leading domestic teams from the major cricketing nations.[8][9]

The competition was won in its inaugural season by Surrey, and in the twenty seasons that it has run, it has been won by thirteen different counties. Leicestershire and Hampshire have won the competition on the most occasions, doing so three times.[10] Somerset have contested more finals than any other team; as well as winning the competition in 2005 and 2023, they were losing finalists in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2021.[11]

Men's champions

List of English men's Twenty20 cricket champions
Year Winner Runners-up Venue Player (club) Runs Player (club) Wickets Notes
Leading run-scorer Leading wicket-taker
2003 Surrey Warwickshire Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire Australia Brad Hodge (Leicestershire) 301 England Adam Hollioake (Surrey) 16 [12][13]
2004 Leicestershire Surrey Edgbaston, Warwickshire England Darren Maddy (Leicestershire) 356 England Adam Hollioake (Surrey) 20 [14][15]
2005 Somerset Lancashire The Oval, London England Owais Shah (Middlesex) 410 England Nayan Doshi (Surrey) 17 [16][17]
2006 Leicestershire Nottinghamshire Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire Australia Justin Langer (Somerset) 464 England Nayan Doshi (Surrey) 21 [18][19]
2007 Kent Gloucestershire Edgbaston, Warwickshire England Luke Wright (Sussex) 346 England Chris Schofield (Surrey),
England Simon Cook (Kent)		 17 [20][21]
2008 Middlesex Kent The Rose Bowl, Hampshire England Joe Denly (Kent) 451 Pakistan Yasir Arafat (Kent) 23 [22][23]
2009 Sussex Somerset Edgbaston, Warwickshire England Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire) 525 South Africa Alfonso Thomas (Somerset) 18 [24][25]
2010 Hampshire Somerset The Rose Bowl, Hampshire England Jimmy Adams (Hampshire) 668 South Africa Alfonso Thomas (Somerset) 33 [26][27]
2011 Leicestershire Somerset Edgbaston, Warwickshire Australia Andrew McDonald (Leicestershire) 584 England Tim Phillips (Essex) 26 [28][29]
2012 Hampshire Yorkshire Sophia Gardens, Glamorgan Australia Phillip Hughes (Worcestershire) 402 Australia Mitchell Starc (Yorkshire) 21 [30][31]
2013 Northamptonshire Surrey Edgbaston, Warwickshire England Craig Kieswetter (Somerset) 517 Pakistan Azharullah (Northamptonshire) 27 [32][33]
2014 Birmingham Bears[a] Lancashire England Jason Roy (Surrey) 677 New Zealand Jeetan Patel (Birmingham Bears) 25 [34][35]
2015 Lancashire Northamptonshire England James Vince (Hampshire) 710 Australia James Faulkner (Lancashire) 25 [36][37]
2016 Northamptonshire Durham Australia Michael Klinger (Gloucestershire) 548 England Benny Howell (Gloucestershire) 24 [38][39]
2017 Nottinghamshire Warwickshire England Joe Denly (Kent) 567 Australia Clint McKay (Leicestershire) 23 [40][41]
2018 Worcestershire Sussex England Laurie Evans (Sussex) 614 England Pat Brown (Worcestershire) 31
2019 Essex Worcestershire Pakistan Babar Azam (Somerset) 578 Trinidad and Tobago Ravi Rampaul (Derbyshire) 23
2020 Nottinghamshire Surrey England Daniel Bell-Drummond (Kent) 423 England Jake Ball (Nottinghamshire) 19
2021 Kent Somerset Australia Josh Inglis (Leicestershire) 531 Afghanistan Naveen-ul-Haq (Leicestershire) 26
2022 Hampshire Lancashire England James Vince (Hampshire) 678 England Richard Gleeson (Lancashire) 25
2023 Somerset Essex England James Vince (Hampshire) 670 New Zealand Matt Henry (Somerset) 31

Performance by county (Men's)

Titles won by club (%)

  Leicestershire – 3 (14.3%)
  Hampshire – 3 (14.3%)
  Kent – 2 (9.5%)
  Northamptonshire - 2 (9.5%)
  Nottinghamshire - 2 (9.5%)
  Somerset - 2 (9.5%)
  Others – 7 (33.3%)
Titles Club Title-winning seasons
3 Leicestershire 2004, 2006, 2011
Hampshire 2010, 2012, 2022
2 Somerset 2005, 2023
Kent 2007, 2021
Northamptonshire 2013, 2016
Nottinghamshire 2017, 2020
1 Essex 2019
Lancashire 2015
Middlesex 2008
Surrey 2003
Sussex 2009
Birmingham Bears 2014
Worcestershire 2018

Women's champions

Main articles: Women's Cricket Super League and Charlotte Edwards Cup
Former England captain Charlotte Edwards led the Southern Vipers to the inaugural WCSL title in 2016
List of English Women's Twenty20 cricket champions
Year Winner Runners-up Venue Player (club) Runs Player (club) Wickets Notes
Leading run-scorer Leading wicket-taker
2016 Southern Vipers Western Storm County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford Jamaica Stafanie Taylor (Western Storm) 289 Jamaica Stafanie Taylor (Western Storm) 11 [42][43]
2017 Western Storm Southern Vipers County Cricket Ground, Hove New Zealand Rachel Priest (Western Storm) 261 England Nat Sciver (Surrey Stars) 12 [44][45]
2018 Surrey Stars Loughborough Lightning County Cricket Ground, Hove India Smriti Mandhana (Western Storm) 421 Scotland Kirstie Gordon (Loughborough Lightning) 17
2019 Western Storm Southern Vipers County Cricket Ground, Hove England Danielle Wyatt (Southern Vipers) 466 England Freya Davies (Western Storm) 19
2021 South East Stars Northern Diamonds Rose Bowl, Southampton England Evelyn Jones (Central Sparks) 276 England Bryony Smith (South East Stars) 14

Performance by team (Women's)

Titles won by club (%)

  Western Storm – 2 (50.0%)
  Southern Vipers – 1 (25.0%)
  Surrey Stars – 1 (25.0%)
Titles Club Title-winning seasons
2 Western Storm 2017, 2019
1 Southern Vipers 2016
Surrey Stars 2018

Notes

  1. ^ Since 2014, Warwickshire's Twenty20 team has been known as the Birmingham Bears.

References

General

Specific

  1. ^ "Direction of Domestic Twenty20 Under Microscope". sportinglife.com. 365 Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Auld, Freddie (9 May 2003). "A whole new ball-game – the Twenty20 Cup". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  3. ^ Brett, Oliver (13 November 2002). "Pure entertainment beckons". BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  4. ^ "Twenty20 Cup heralds change at start of the 2003 first-class county cricket season". ESPNcricinfo. 17 April 2003. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  5. ^ Liew, Jonathan (1 June 2010). "Sussex begin defence of Twenty20 title with victory over Somerset". The Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  6. ^ "Professional Cricketers turn to Friends". Friends Life. 31 May 2011. Archived from the original on 25 May 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  7. ^ Telegraph staff (19 November 2009). "Middlesex sign Adam Gilchrist for Twenty20 Cup and now look to Sachin Tendulkar". The Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  8. ^ Hoult, Nick (7 October 2009). "Somerset and Sussex outsiders in Champions League Twenty20 dash for cash". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  9. ^ Berry, Scyld (27 August 2011). "Leicestershire complete T20 treble after beating Somerset at Edgbaston". The Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  10. ^ "T20 Blast Finals Day: Hampshire beat Lancashire in double final-ball thriller to win for third time". BBC. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  11. ^ "Six appeal". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  12. ^ "Batting and Fielding in Twenty20 Cup 2003 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
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  25. ^ "Bowling in Twenty20 Cup 2009 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  26. ^ "Batting and Fielding in Friends Provident T20 2010 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  27. ^ "Bowling in Friends Provident T20 2010 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  28. ^ "Batting and Fielding in Friends Life t20 2011 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  29. ^ "Bowling in Friends Life t20 2011 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  30. ^ "Batting and Fielding in Friends Life t20 2012 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  31. ^ "Bowling in Friends Life t20 2012 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
  32. ^ "Batting and Fielding in Friends Life t20 2013 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  33. ^ "Bowling in Friends Life t20 2013 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  34. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2014 / Most runs". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  35. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2014 / Most wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  36. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2015 / Most runs". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  37. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2015 / Most wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  38. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2016 / Most runs". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  39. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2016 / Most wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  40. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2017 / Most runs". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  41. ^ "Records / NatWest T20 Blast, 2017 / Most wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  42. ^ "Records / Women's Cricket Super League, 2016 / Most runs". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  43. ^ "Records / Women's Cricket Super League, 2016 / Most wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  44. ^ "Records / Women's Cricket Super League, 2017 / Most runs". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  45. ^ "Records / Women's Cricket Super League, 2017 / Most wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 September 2017.

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