County cricket

Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales.

Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at different levels: the County Championship, a first-class competition which involves 18 clubs, of which 17 are English and one is from Wales; and the National Counties Championship, with 19 English clubs and one club representing several Welsh counties.

County clubs have also played limited-overs competitions since the 1960s. The first edition of the Gillette Cup in 1963 was the world's first List A cricket tournament. The Sunday League existed from 1969 to 2009, mostly as a 40-overs-per-side league. The 2003 Twenty20 Cup was the world's first Twenty20 tournament. Currently, the main limited-overs county competitions are the One-Day Cup, Women's One-Day Cup, T20 Blast and Women's T20 Blast.