Middlesex tee off Twenty20 summer
Owais Shah, man of the match in the 2008 final, salutes his fifty against Kent
Twenty20 Cup champions Middlesex Crusaders will not be short of incentives when they kickstart a summer of Twenty20 cricket against rivals Surrey Brown Caps at Lord’s.
Middlesex, who represented English cricket in the Stanford 20/20 tournament and were due to take part in the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League until the Mumbai terror attacks, open the 2009 Twenty20 Cup on May 25.
The domestic 20-over competition will serve as a precursor to the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, held in England for the first time, in June.
As in previous years, the 18 English counties are split into three divisions, North, South and Midlands/Wales/West.
They will compete for a place at finals day on August 15, held at Edgbaston for the third time.
The South Division has also thrown up an opening-day re-match of last year’s semi-final, when Kent Spitfires meet Essex Eagles at Canterbury.
Essex should include Graham Napier, who swept the board last year with the Twenty20 MVP award, Sky Sports Sixes League and Walter Lawrence Trophy.
Napier is a world record holder for the astonishing 16 sixes he struck in his knock of 152 not out in the Twenty20 match against Sussex Sharks last summer.
In the other South Division match, Hampshire Hawks play Sussex at the Rose Bowl.
Graham Napier broke the record for the highest score in English Twenty20 with his 152
Durham Dynamos, who lost to Middlesex in the other semi-final, open the North Division against Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Trent Bridge.
The only two-time winners of the trophy, Leicestershire Foxes, play Yorkshire Carnegie at Headingley, while Derbyshire Phantoms’ first match is at Chester-le-Street on May 26.
There is a Roses match at Old Trafford on May 26, where Lancashire Lightning meet Yorkshire.
The first day/night match of the tournament takes place in the Midlands/West/Wales Division at Cardiff, where Somerset Sabres visit Glamorgan Dragons, who are expected to have South Africa star Herschelle Gibbs in their ranks.
Northamptonshire Steelbacks play Warwickshire Bears, and Worcestershire Royals host Gloucestershire Gladiators in the central pool’s other first-day matches.
The quarter-finals take place on the weekend of August 7, 8 and 9. The top two sides in each division qualify for the quarter-finals by right, followed by the best two third-placed teams.
Finals day in Birmingham sees the first semi-final start at 12.30pm, the second semi at 4pm, and the final at 7.15pm.
