2020 English cricket season
The 2020 English cricket season was originally scheduled to run between 2 April and 25 September. It should have been the 131st year in which the County Championship has been an official competition and included first-class, one-day and Twenty20 cricket competitions throughout England and Wales and as well as the launch of the new 100 ball competition The Hundred franchise competition.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no professional and recreational cricket was played in England until 8 July 2020 when England and the West Indies started a three match test series behind closed doors at the Rose Bowl with the subsequent Tests to be played behind closed doors at Old Trafford.
Currently county cricket is postponed until 1 August after it was originally postponed to 28 May and then 1 July. The launch of the Hundred was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, the vast majority of clubs placed players and staff on furlough. The traditional start to the season between the County Championship teams and the six Marylebone Cricket Club University teams of England and Wales, was cancelled. The first two rounds of fixtures would have been first-class matches, with the England and Wales Cricket Board stating that the 2020 University Matches would have been the last ones to have first-class status.
