List of English Twenty20 cricket champions

Leicestershire (pictured celebrating their semi-final win in 2011) have won the most English Twenty20 titles, winning on three occasions.

The English Twenty20 cricket champions are the winners of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Twenty20 competition for first-class cricket counties, most recently the Friends Life t20, although from 2014 this has been replaced with the NatWest t20 Blast. The competition culminates with 'Finals Day': a single day on which both semi-finals and the final are contested at the same ground.^[1] Northamptonshire are the current champions, claiming their second title in the 2016 season.

Twenty20 cricket was developed by the ECB to attract new, younger audiences to cricket.^[2] Replacing the 50 overs-per-side 'Benson & Hedges Cup',^[3] the 'Twenty20 Cup' was introduced in 2003, and was over two hours shorter than its predecessor, and matches also featured greater entertainment off the field, such as live music, barbecues, fancy dress and karaoke.^[4] The competition was rebranded as the 'Friends Provident t20' in 2010,^[5] and a season later as the 'Friends Life t20'.^[6] In 2014, the competition became known as the NatWest t20 Blast. For the first seven years of the competition, teams were allowed one overseas player, as in the other domestic tournaments, but from the 2010 season, each team was allowed two.^[7] The finalists in both 2009 and 2011 qualified for the Champions League Twenty20, an international competition between the leading domestic teams from the major cricketing nations.^[8][9]

The competition was won in its inaugural season by Surrey, and in the twelve seasons that it has run, it has been won by nine different counties. Leicestershire have won the competition on the most occasions, doing so in 2004, 2006 and most recently in 2011.^[10] Somerset have contested more finals than any other team; after winning the competition in 2005, they were losing finalists in 2009, 2010 and 2011.^[10]

Champions

List of English Twenty20 cricket champions

Year	Winner	Runners-up	Venue	Player (club)	Runs	Player (club)	Wickets	Notes
				Leading run-scorer		Leading wicket-taker
2003	Surrey	Warwickshire	Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire	Hodge, BradBrad Hodge (Leicestershire)	301	Hollioake, AdamAdam Hollioake (Surrey)	16	[11][12]
2004	Leicestershire	Surrey	Edgbaston, Warwickshire	Maddy, DarrenDarren Maddy (Leicestershire)	356	Hollioake, AdamAdam Hollioake (Surrey)	20	[13][14]
2005	Somerset	Lancashire	The Oval, London	Shah, OwaisOwais Shah (Middlesex)	410	Doshi, NayanNayan Doshi (Surrey)	17	[15][16]
2006	Leicestershire	Nottinghamshire	Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire	Langer, JustinJustin Langer (Somerset)	464	Doshi, NayanNayan Doshi (Surrey)	21	[17][18]
2007	Kent	Gloucestershire	Edgbaston, Warwickshire	Wright, LukeLuke Wright (Sussex)	346	Schofield, ChrisChris Schofield (Surrey), Cook, SimonSimon Cook (Kent)	17	[19][20]
2008	Middlesex	Kent	The Rose Bowl, Hampshire	Denly, JoeJoe Denly (Kent)	451	Arafat, YasirYasir Arafat (Kent)	23	[21][22]
2009	Sussex	Somerset	Edgbaston, Warwickshire	Trott, JonathanJonathan Trott (Warwickshire)	525	Thomas, AlfonsoAlfonso Thomas (Somerset)	18	[23][24]
2010	Hampshire	Somerset	The Rose Bowl, Hampshire	Adams, JimmyJimmy Adams (Hampshire)	668	Thomas, AlfonsoAlfonso Thomas (Somerset)	33	[25][26]
2011	Leicestershire	Somerset	Edgbaston, Warwickshire	McDonald, AndrewAndrew McDonald (Leicestershire)	584	Phillips, TimTim Phillips (Essex)	26	[27][28]
2012	Hampshire	Yorkshire	Sophia Gardens, Glamorgan	Hughes, PhillipPhillip Hughes (Worcestershire)	402	Starc, MitchellMitchell Starc (Yorkshire)	21	[29][30]
2013	Northamptonshire	Surrey	Edgbaston, Warwickshire	Kieswetter, CraigCraig Kieswetter (Somerset)	517	Azharullah, Azharullah (Northamptonshire)	27	[31][32]
2014	Warwickshire	Lancashire		Roy, JasonJason Roy (Surrey)	677	Patel, JeetanJeetan Patel (Warwickshire)	25	[33][34]
2015	Lancashire	Northamptonshire		Vince, JamesJames Vince (Hampshire)	710	Faulkner, JamesJames Faulkner (Lancashire)	25	[35][36]

Performance by county

Titles won by club (%)

  Leicestershire – 3 (25%)

  Hampshire – 2 (17.7%)

  Kent – 1 (8.3%)

  Middlesex – 1 (8.3%)

  Northamptonshire - 1 (8.3%)

  Somerset – 1 (8.3%)

  Surrey – 1 (8.3%)

  Sussex – 1 (8.3%)

  Warwickshire - 1 (8.3%)

Titles	Club	Title-winning seasons
3	Leicestershire	2004, 2006, 2011
2	Hampshire	2010, 2012
1	Kent	2007
	Middlesex	2008
	Northamptonshire	2013
	Somerset	2005
	Surrey	2003
	Sussex	2009
	Warwickshire	2014
	Lancashire	2015

References

General

• "Six appeal". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 27 December 2011.

Specific

1. "Direction of Domestic Twenty20 Under Microscope". sportinglife.com. 365 Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
2. Auld, Freddie (9 May 2003). "A whole new ball-game – the Twenty20 Cup". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
3. Brett, Oliver (13 November 2002). "Pure entertainment beckons". BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
4. "Twenty20 Cup heralds change at start of the 2003 first-class county cricket season". ESPNcricinfo. 17 April 2003. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
5. Liew, Jonathan (1 June 2010). "Sussex begin defence of Twenty20 title with victory over Somerset". The Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
6. "Professional Cricketers turn to Friends". Friends Life. 31 May 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
7. Telegraph staff (19 November 2009). "Middlesex sign Adam Gilchrist for Twenty20 Cup and now look to Sachin Tendulkar". The Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
8. Hoult, Nick (7 October 2009). "Somerset and Sussex outsiders in Champions League Twenty20 dash for cash". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
9. Berry, Scyld (27 August 2011). "Leicestershire complete T20 treble after beating Somerset at Edgbaston". The Daily Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
10. "Six appeal". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
11. "Batting and Fielding in Twenty20 Cup 2003 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
12. "Bowling in Twenty20 Cup 2003 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
13. "Batting and Fielding in Twenty20 Cup 2004 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
14. "Bowling in Twenty20 Cup 2004 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
15. "Batting and Fielding in Twenty20 Cup 2005 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
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17. "Batting and Fielding in Twenty20 Cup 2006 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
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27. "Batting and Fielding in Friends Life t20 2011 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
28. "Bowling in Friends Life t20 2011 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
29. "Batting and Fielding in Friends Life t20 2012 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
30. "Bowling in Friends Life t20 2012 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
31. "Batting and Fielding in Friends Life t20 2013 (Ordered by Runs)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
32. "Bowling in Friends Life t20 2013 (Ordered by Wickets)". CricketArchive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
33. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/natwest-t20-blast-2014/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=8775;type=tournament
34. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/natwest-t20-blast-2014/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?id=8775;type=tournament
35. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/natwest-t20-blast-2015/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=9757;type=tournament
36. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/natwest-t20-blast-2015/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?id=9757;type=tournament