Friends Provident Trophy

The Friends Provident Trophy is a one day cricket contest held in the United Kingdom. Until 2006 season, this contest was known as a straight knock out competition. The administrator of this trophy is the England and Wales Cricket Board. The format of this game is limited over’s cricket. Moreover, there are twenty teams who can participate at the competition. The first tournament which was played was in 1963. The present team that won in 2009 is Hampshire team. This team won by six wickets whilst playing against the Sussex team. The most successful team till date was the Lancashire team which has won till date 7 titles.

The competition was initially known by the name, the Gillette Cup from 1963 to 1980. Later on, it changed to the NatWest Trophy from 1981 – 2000 and as the C & G Trophy from 2000-2006. For a brief period, this contest was known as the ECB Trophy.

The Final

The final of this competition was played early September near the end of the domestic season. All of the final matches were played at the Lord’s stadium in London. For the cricketers, appearing in the final match in the Lord’s and especially in this competition is of significance in their cricket career. In 2009, the match was played in the month of July. In 2007, the competition was won by the Durham team by 125 runs against the Hampshire team. In 2008, Essex team won over Kent team by 5 wickets.

Total winning rate of each county from 1963 to 2008

Lancashire team till date has won around seven tournaments in all and they have won the most games. Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Sussex are in the second place winning around five tournaments of this competition. Middlesex has won till date around four of the tourneys. Somerset, Essex, Hampshire and Somerset are in the fourth place winning three tournaments in all. Northamptonshire and Kent teams have won only two of the editions till date. Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Durham and Worcestershire are the teams which have only one win to their credit.

The Format of the game

In 2008, there was an introduction of a new format for the competition. Along with Ireland and Scotland, the 18 countries were split into four groups of five teams. Each of the team would be playing with the other in the group home once and later on away once with the top two counties with the group which is entering the quarter final match. This contest at present is played in the first half of the season and the final match takes place in the month of August. The other significant domestic one day competition is the Natwest Pro 40 League, which is played during the second half of the season.