| Dates: 8 April – 1 October |
| Coverage: Live ball-by-ball BBC local radio commentary, live text commentary & reports across the BBC Sport website and app with selected matches simulcast on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra |
The County Championship makes a welcome return on Thursday after it was shelved in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With restrictions slowly being lifted in England and Wales, fans can once again look forward to a full season of domestic cricket, although it’s going to be a bit different to what we’ve been used to.
BBC Sport takes a closer look at how the 2021 campaign is going to work and some of the players to look out for.
The format
The 18 first-class counties will be split into three groups of six, a change from the eight-side Division One and 10-team Division Two in place when the County Championship was last played in 2019.
Each county will then play 10 four-day games in the group…
