The 2021 County Championship season will start with a full programme of fixtures on Thursday 8 April.

Essex, county champions in 2017 and 2019 and Bob Willis Trophy winners in the shortened 2020 season, start at home to Worcestershire at Chelmsford.

Somerset, runners-up two summers running and losers in the BWT final, are back at Lord's to face Middlesex.

The 10 rounds across three groups run to 14 July, then there is a break until the divisional stages on 30 August.

That will be to accommodate the delayed start of the England & Wales Cricket Board's new men's and women's competition, The Hundred.

When the first-class season resumes, the top two counties in each group will go into the six-team Division One for the four-match divisional stages.

The other 12 first-class counties will go into Divisions Two and Three - also six teams in each.

The winners of Division One will be crowned as county champions.

The top two counties in Division One will then go forward to contest the five-day Bob Willis Trophy final at Lord's, scheduled to start on Tuesday 27 September.

The Hundred and T20 Blast dates, along with the rest of the men's fixtures for 2021 - plus those for the women's domestic game - will be announced early in the New Year.

The new structure for the revamped Championship was agreed by the first-class counties in October in an effort to streamline the game in the wake of Covid-19.

"We're all looking forward to the return of the County Championship after a very challenging year in 2020," said former Warwickshire chief executive Neil Snowball, now the ECB's managing director of county cricket.

"We are also working hard with all 18 first-class counties to ensure that we are able to welcome the return of crowds safely next year and will continue to work closely with the government and all relevant authorities."
County Championship groups

Group 1: Essex, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Worcestershire, Durham.

Group 2: Somerset, Hampshire, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Middlesex, Leicestershire.

Group 3: Kent, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Glamorgan, Sussex.
Opening fixtures - Thursday 8 April

Group 1

Essex v Worcestershire

Nottinghamshire v Durham

Warwickshire v Derbyshire

Group 2

Gloucestershire v Surrey

Leicestershire v Hampshire

Middlesex v Somerset

Group 3

Northamptonshire v Kent

Sussex v Lancashire

Yorkshire v Glamorgan