County Cricket News / Updates - 2017 Season

Glamorgan are waiting to find out whether they will stage one of the floodlit day-night Championship games likely to be staged in June 2017 using pink balls.
The ECB is keen to play a full round of four-day games under the format, before the first day-night test in England, when England face West Indies in August 2017 at Edgbaston.
Yorkshire are also keen to stage a game.
Glamorgan won the ever first day-night game played in the Championship. They beat Kent by eight wickets at Canterbury in September 2011. But the late-season experiment was not a success in attracting a big crowd and received mixed reviews from players.
Day-night June fixtures could prove more popular with spectators.
The ECB will release a draft version of the 2017 fixture schedule to clubs in mid-November 2016, before its publication later in the month.

 

Mohammad Amir has signed as overseas player for Essex for the second half of the 2017 season.
Amir, the Pakistan left-arm swing bowler, is expected to be available from the end of the Champions Trophy in mid-June. Essex hope he will help them adjust to life in Division One of the County Championship - they were promoted at the end of 2016 - and Amir, who married recently, now has family in the London area

 

Sussex have signed South African allrounder Stiaan van Zyl on a three-year deal
Van Zyl, 29, will arrive at Hove for the 2017 season after first completing the South African domestic season this winter with Cape Cobras

 

Former West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards will return to play county cricket for Hampshire in 2017.
Hampshire confirmed a one-year deal for the 34-year-old

 

Ryan ten Doeschate will captain Essex in all formats in 2017 after Ravi Bopara decided to stand down as limited-overs skipper to focus on his game.

 

Yorkshire are set to appoint captain Andrew Gale as first-team coach.
Gale, 32, will succeed Jason Gillespie, who left at the end of the season after leading Yorkshire to County Championship titles in 2014 and 2015.
Dewsbury-born left-handed batsman Gale has spent his entire career at Headingley, captaining the side for the past seven years

 

Australia batsman George Bailey has re-signed for former club Hampshire on a two-year deal.

 

Sussex have appointed former Rugby Football Union director and England fly-half Rob Andrew as chief executive.
The 53-year-old, who resigned as the RFU's director of professional rugby in April, succeeds Zac Toumazi.
He will begin his new role at Hove in January 2017.

 

Surrey have introduced a ballot to cope with demand for their NatWest T20 Blast match against Middlesex at The Oval.
The match has sold out for the last three seasons so, in an attempt to meet demand and gain data from the largest possible audience, the club have now decided to treat the game as they would an international fixture.

 

The 2017 County Championship will feature a full round of day-night matches for the first time.
England players are expected to be made available for the nine floodlit games, starting on 26 June.

Day-night Championship fixtures (26-29 June 2017)

• Division One: Essex v Middlesex, Hampshire v Somerset, Warwickshire v Lancashire, Yorkshire v Surrey
• Division Two: Durham v Worcestershire, Glamorgan v Derbyshire, Northamptonshire v Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire v Kent, Sussex v Gloucestershire

 

Next summer's County Championship will feature eight teams in Division One and 10 in Division Two, instead of the nine-nine split of previous years.
However, all teams will play 14 matches instead of 16, with each county in the second tier facing four of the others only once during the season

 

The One-Day Cup has been moved to April and May, with the final at Lord's following on 1 July. This means the competition will follow a similar schedule to the old Benson and Hedges Cup, which ran from 1975 to 2002

 

Essex have signed New Zealand fast bowler Neil Wagner for the first half of the 2017 County Championship season and One-Day Cup.
The 30-year-old has played 27 Tests for the Black Caps and had a spell with Lancashire this summer, where he took 32 Championship wickets
He will be replaced by Pakistan's Mohammad Amir at newly-promoted Essex midway through next summer.

 

Worcestershire have re-signed New Zealand all-rounder Mitchell Santner for the 2017 T20 Blast competition.

 

Derbyshire have signed South Africa international fast bowler Hardus Viljoen on a three-year deal.
Viljoen took the wicket of England captain Alastair Cook with his first ball in Test cricket in January, his only international appearance to date. The 27-year-old, who played for Kent last summer, will feature as a non-overseas player, subject to successful registration under the Kolpak ruling.

 

Sussex have signed South Africa international Vernon Philander for the first half of the county season, advancing his reputation as one of the overseas nomads of the county circuit.
Philander, who remains an integral part of South Africa's bowling attack and has played 37 Test matches for his country, will be available for Sussex's first six Specsavers County Championship matches, and the entire group stage of the Royal London One-Day Cup tournament.

 

Australia pace bowler Clint McKay has been named as Leicestershire's captain for limited-overs cricket in 2017.
The 33-year-old replaces Mark Pettini, with compatriot Mark Cosgrove remaining skipper for Championship fixtures.

 

Australian fast bowler Andrew Tye is returning to Gloucestershire in 2017 to play in the NatWest T20 Blast

 

Yorkshire have appointed Gary Ballance as their new captain after Andrew Gale retired to become head coach.
The 27-year-old England batsman will skipper the side in all three formats of the game.

 

Aaron Finch, the Australia opener, will return to Surrey for the whole of the 2017 NatWest T20 Blast. He will also provide cover in the Championship when Kumar Sangakkara is away playing in the Caribbean Premier League.