 Nineteen days of County Championship cricket on weekends or bank holidays, matches at Arundel, Eastbourne and Horsham, the return of a fixture against national county opposition, as well as seven floodlit Vitality Blast group matches at The 1st Central County Ground are among the highlights of Delray Rawlins and his Sussex’s teammates fixture list for next summer.
The team will begin their County Championship campaign a week later than in 2019 with the visit of Durham to The 1st Central County Ground on Sunday April 12th.
Further home Championship matches against Leicestershire and Glamorgan and trips to Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire follow before the start of the Vitality Blast at the end of May.
Sussex Sharks’ first opponents in the T20 competition are Kent Spitfires who travel to The 1st Central County Ground on Thursday May 28th. That is one of six home Vitality Blast fixtures under lights on either a Thursday or Friday night for Jason Gillespie’s men.
Glamorgan, Hampshire, Surrey, Gloucestershire and Essex Eagles are the team’s other opponents on those occasions, with Somerset visiting on the evening of Wednesday June 3rd.
Middlesex are the county to miss out on a visit to Hove in the Blast this summer, while the Sharks won’t play Somerset away.
Vitality Blast group games run until Sunday July 12th, with Sussex also playing three Championship matches – against Middlesex, Derbyshire and Leicestershire at The 1st Central County Ground, Arundel Castle and Grace Road - during this period.
The match at Arundel beginning on Sunday June 28th is the first of three home outground fixtures, meaning that the Sussex men’s first-team will play at four separate venues for the first time since 2008.
Sussex Sharks will take on eastern neighbors Kent in the Royal London Cup at Eastbourne on Friday July 24th, with Gloucestershire their opponents in the same competition when county cricket returns to Horsham on Sunday 9th August.
In a change from recent seasons, the make-up of the two groups in the Royal London Cup has been decided by a draw rather than by geography. The Sharks’ other two home group matches are against Durham and Middlesex at The 1st Central County Ground. They will play away against Worcestershire, Hampshire, Lancashire and Essex.
The group stage of the competition runs from Sunday July 19th to Sunday August 9th. The play-offs between second and third-placed sides both take place on Thursday August 13th with semi-finals contested between the winners of those matches and the two group winners on Sunday August 16th. The final will take place at Trent Bridge on Saturday September 19th.
|
