ECB Confirms Friends Provident Axe

The England and Wales Cricket Board has confirmed there will not be a domestic 50-over competition from next season meaning that the Friends Provident Trophy has been dropped from the calendar.

In 2010, counties will play in the four-day County Championship, a new-look Twenty20 competition and a 40-over event instead.

The ECB has also increased the number of overseas players permitted in Twenty20 action from one to two, though the limit will remain at one in Championship cricket.

England’s first one-day county competition was the Gillette Cup, which began as a 65-over competition in 1963 – and has progressed through various incarnations as the NatWest Trophy, Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy and Friends Provident Trophy.