Twenty20 Cup
The Twenty20 Cup, known since 2014 as the T20 Blast, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003 as the first professional Twenty20 league in the world. It is the top-level Twenty20 competition in England and Wales.
The competition has been known by a variety of names due to commercial sponsorship. From 2010 to 2013 it was known as the Friend Provident t20 and Friends Life t20 and from 2014 to 2017 as the Natwest t20 Blast. From 2018, the competition is sponsored by insurance company Vitality and is known as the Vitality Blast.
History
When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB needed another one-day competition to fill its place. In response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship the decision was made to launch a 20 over competition with the aim of boosting the game's popularity, particularly with the younger generation. The intention was to deliver fast-paced, exciting cricket which was accessible to fans who were put off by the longer versions of the game.The first Twenty20 Cup was held in 2003 and was marketed with the slogan "I don’t like cricket, I love it" – a line from the cricket-themed pop song Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc).
Twenty20 Cup
The first official Twenty20 Cup matches were played on 13 June 2003. The first season of Twenty20 in England was a success, with the Surrey Lions defeating the Warwickshire Bears by nine wickets in the final to win the first Twenty20 Cup Final. On 15 July 2004 Middlesex versus Surrey attracted a crowd of 26,500, the largest attendance for any county cricket game other than a one-day final since 1953. The tournament saw six different winners in its seven years.By the end of the 2009, the ECB had decided to implement a larger competition for the T20 format of the game. The Twenty20 English Premier League was a proposed cricket league to be run by the ECB consisting of the 18 county teams and two overseas teams divided into two divisions with promotion and relegation. The proposal was influenced by the success of the Indian Premier League and by Allen Stanford who had organised the Stanford Super Series in the Caribbean. After the collapse of Stanford's series the proposals were scrapped. Instead a modified 40 over league, the Clydesdale Bank 40 was implemented.
Friends Provident/FriendsLife T20
The Friends Provident T20 was introduced in 2010. The competition initially divided the eighteen counties into North and South groups, before reverting to the previous model of three divisions of six teams. This period of Twenty20 cricket in England and Wales saw Leicestershire and Hampshire becoming the most successful sides, and in 2013 Northants won their first trophy for two decades.NatWest T20 Blast
NatWest became the tournament sponsors in 2014, renewing a longstanding relationship the bank had with the county game. The first year of the tournament saw 700,000 spectators attend the games, the most in the competition's history. The tournament was won in 2014 by the Birmingham Bears, Warwickshire County Cricket Club's name for the purposes of Twenty20 cricket, making it the first time a county trophy had been won by a team using a city name. The final victors of this branding of the tournament in 2017 were Notts Outlaws.Vitality Blast
Vitality became the tournament sponsors in 2018 after signing a deal to become the title partner for four years.Competition format
The 18 first-class counties compete for the title, initially playing in two geographical divisions. In the past three divisions were used in some seasons, but since 2014 this has been reduced to two. As of 2018, matches are played in a block during July and August with the aim of attracting large crowds during the school summer holidays. The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoff stage, with a set of quarter-finals leaving four teams in the competition. The two semi-finals and the final are played on one finals day at Edgbaston in September.Northern Division
- Derbyshire Falcons
- Durham
- Lancashire Lightning
- Leicestershire Foxes
- Northamptonshire Steelbacks
- Notts Outlaws
- Birmingham Bears
- Worcestershire Rapids
- Yorkshire Vikings
Southern Division
- Essex Eagles
- Glamorgan
- Gloucestershire
- Hampshire
- Kent Spitfires
- Middlesex
- Somerset
- Surrey
- Sussex Sharks
Winners
| Season | Venue | Winner | Result | Runner-up | Source |
| 2003 | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | Surrey | Won by 9 wickets | Warwickshire Bears | |
| 2004 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Leicestershire Foxes | Won by 7 wickets | Surrey | |
| 2005 | The Oval, London | Somerset Sabres | Won by 7 wickets | Lancashire Lightning | |
| 2006 | Trent Bridge, Nottingham | Leicestershire Foxes | Won by 4 runs | Notts Outlaws | |
| 2007 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Kent Spitfires | Won by 4 wickets | Gloucestershire Gladiators | |
| 2008 | Rose Bowl, Southampton | Middlesex Crusaders | Won by 3 runs | Kent Spitfires | |
| 2009 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Sussex Sharks | Won by 63 runs | Somerset Sabres | |
| 2010 | Rose Bowl, Southampton | Hampshire Royals | Won by losing fewer wickets | Somerset | |
| 2011 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Leicestershire Foxes | Won by 18 runs | Somerset | |
| 2012 | Sophia Gardens, Cardiff | Hampshire Royals | Won by 10 runs | Yorkshire Carnegie | |
| 2013 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Northants Steelbacks | Won by 102 runs | Surrey | |
| 2014 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Birmingham Bears | Won by 4 runs | Lancashire Lightning | |
| 2015 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Lancashire Lightning | Won by 13 runs | Northants Steelbacks | |
| 2016 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Northants Steelbacks | Won by 4 wickets | Durham Jets | |
| 2017 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Notts Outlaws | Won by 22 runs | Birmingham Bears | |
| 2018 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Worcestershire Rapids | Won by 5 wickets | Sussex Sharks | |
| 2019 | Edgbaston, Birmingham | Essex Eagles | Won by 4 wickets | Worcestershire Rapids |