All you need to know ahead of the county championship season

First of, it begins on the 7th of April
There will be seven rounds of matches scheduled every Thursday to Friday for successive weeks leading up to England's home test series against New Zealand.
There will be five more rounds in June and July with the winners of division one and two being decided in September.
The league is back to its old format:
Two divisions
Division One contains 10 counties and Division two contains 8 counties
There is a two up, two down relegation system in place coming into effect come the end of the season.
Each county will play 14 games in the season, 7 home ones and 7 away matches.
Which teams are where?
Well, in division one there is
Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Surrey, Warwickshire, Yorkshire.
In division two there is
Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Sussex, Worcestershire.

Lancashire, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire will remain in division one as they were promoted in 2019, the last year of the two league formats. As Nottinghamshire were the only side relegated that year, they will be in division two for this season.
How does point scoring work?
Counties are awarded 16 points for a win and 8 points for a tie and 5 points for a draw.
Bonus points are calculated like this:
Batting Points
200 to 249 runs - 1 point
250 to 299 runs - 2 points 300 to 349 runs - 3 points 350 to 399 runs - 4 points 400 runs or over - 5 points

Bowling Points 3 to 5 wickets taken - 1 point
6 to 8 wickets taken - 2 points
9 to 10 wickets taken - 3 points

If a match is abandoned without a ball being bowled, each side scores five points.
If penalty runs are awarded to a team which at that time had faced less than 110 overs in their first innings, or completed their first innings before they had faced 110 overs, those penalty runs will be considered as counting towards the total as far as the award of bonus points is concerned.
If the match is abandoned due to an unfit pitch, the home team receives zero points and any bonus points already achieved are rescinded. The visiting team are awarded 16 points plus bonus points already achieved or 20 points - whichever is the greater at the time of abandonment
For tie-breaker purposes, the home side are credited with the loss and the away team gain the win.
To watch, every counties team will live stream their matches via their match zone on their website and on their youtube channel. Sky Sports has tv rights as well meaning that some games may even sneek on tv.
So get out to your team if possible, if not then please tune into watch their games and support your team and above all
ENJOY!!!!
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