Blast Finals Day set for September in Edgbaston due to 2024 T20 World Cup

The Finals Day of the upcoming edition of the T20 Blast will be taking place on September 14 in Edgbaston. The T20 World Cup in 2024 is expected to start in June; hence, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have been forced to delay the tournament. It will also impact the entire schedule of ECB and hence, more changes are expected.

An ECB spokesperson has confirmed the latest development and has mentioned that a full schedule will be made public later in the year. 

“The move to September has been made due to the impact next June's ICC Men's T20 World Cup has had on our England Men's and Women's home international fixtures. The full men's and women's domestic schedule is to be released later this year,” the press release read. 

Notably, Somerset has won the championship in 2023. They defeated Essex on the night of the finals, and with that, the team has bagged their 15th title in history. Meanwhile, the tournament was designed to allow more foreign cricketers to take part in the competition and ECB was successful to a certain degree, but there have been instances where the board has failed. Sunil Narine’s decision to prioritise Major League Cricket (MLC) is one such instance.

On the other hand, the 2023 edition of the T20 Blast was a massive success as ECB enjoyed its second-highest advanced ticket sales ever, which is 16% higher than in 2022. In 2024, with the T20 World Cup and The Hundred being in the corner, the tournament may suffer to gain traction, and hence, the teams will be keen on signing more star cricketers in the next season. 

The 2023 final, meanwhile, saw the T20 Blast’s highest viewership in decades. An average audience of 427,000 was recorded, while viewership for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were up 64% and 12%, respectively, in 2022, as per ESPNcricinfo.