Friends Provident Trophy
| Countries |
 England
|
|---|---|
| Administrator | England and Wales Cricket Board |
| Format | List A cricket |
| First tournament | 1963 |
| Last tournament | 2009 |
| Number of teams | 20 |
| Current champion | Hampshire |
| Most successful | Lancashire (7 titles) |
| Website | Friends Provident Trophy |
The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom.
It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lancashire won the title a record seven times.
The competition has previously been known as the C&G Trophy (2000–2006), the NatWest Trophy (1981–2000) and the Gillette Cup (1963–1980). For a short period following the 2006 season, the competition was known as the ECB Trophy because no sponsors were forthcoming when Cheltenham and Gloucester decided to end their association with the competition after the 2006 season. The tournament, along with the Pro40 forty-overs competition, was replaced by the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition from the 2010 season.
It was the first top level one day competition to be introduced in English and Welsh cricket, amid concern about falling attendances at County Championship matches in the early 1960s.
The competition was based on the Midlands Counties Knockout Cup experiment of 1962, when Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire played one-innings-a-side matches which each lasted one day. The MCC decided to hold a limited over competition (65 overs-a-side) the following year for all first-class counties sponsored by American safety razor company Gillette. The original title was "The First Class Knock Out Competition for the Gillette Cup".
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