Royal London One-Day Cup

Royal London One-Day Cup

Royal London One-Day Cup logo
Countries	England Wales
Administrator	ECB
Format	Limited overs cricket
First tournament	2014
Tournament format	Group stage and knockout
Number of teams	18
Current champion	Warwickshire (1st title)
2016 Royal London One-Day Cup

The Royal London One-Day Cup is a fifty-over limited overs cricket competition for the England and Wales first-class counties. It began in 2014 as a replacement for the ECB 40 tournament that ran from 2010 to 2013. The number of overs per innings has been increased to 50 to bring the competition in line with One Day Internationals.

The competition consists of two groups of nine teams, from which the top four teams from each group progress to the quarter-finals. The groups are allocated randomly.

The competition contains two groups of nine. A random draw is used to place the teams into groups. The top four teams in each group progress to the quarter-finals. The participating teams are the 18 England and Wales first-class counties.

The Royal London Cup is the latest in a line of limited over competitions in county cricket.

The John Player Special League was launched in 1969, as the second one-day competition in England and Wales alongside the Gillette Cup (launched in 1963). The 17 counties of the time played each other in a league format on Sunday afternoons throughout the season. These matches were concise enough to be shown on television, with BBC2 broadcasting one match each week in full until the 1980s, and then as part of the Sunday Grandstand multi-sport programme. For close finishes for the title, cameras appeared at the grounds where the contenders for the title were competing and the trophy presentation to the victorious team would be on film.

Refuge Assurance replaced John Player Special as the sponsor of the competition in 1987 and then in 1988 started an end-of-season play-off competition known as the Refuge Assurance Cup. The top four teams of the season qualified for this competition, with the first-placed team playing the fourth and the second-placed team playing the third, and the winners of these matches meeting in a final at a neutral venue. This competition lasted until 1991.

On Friday 5 July 1991, Somerset played Lancashire at Taunton in the first Sunday League match not to be played on a Sunday.