In 2009, in light of the growth of Twenty20 cricket with the Twenty20 Cup, Indian Premier League and ICC World Twenty20, the ECB realised that the Pro40 and Friends Provident Trophy were attracting less interest. Plans began to consolidate the List A competitions into a single 40-over trophy. The competition began in the 2010 English cricket season with Clydesdale Bank, previously sponsor of the Twenty20 Cup, agreeing to a three-year sponsorship.[3] John Perera, ECB commercial director, stated that "We are delighted to welcome Clydesdale Bank as the title sponsor for the 40-over competition particularly as it gives us an opportunity to build on an already strong working relationship. The Clydesdale Bank 40 is an exciting new competition and the format is designed to comfortably fit into the busy family weekend."[3]Ireland and Scotland, were asked to compete, following their entry in the Friends Provident Trophy, but Ireland declined in order to concentrate on their growing international commitments; The Netherlands took their place.[4][5] A new team, the Unicorns cricket team, was formed of contractless county players to compete, unpaid,[5] alongside the 18 first-class counties, Scotland and the Netherlands.[6]
Warwickshire beat Somerset in the final of the inaugural 2010 tournament. The format for the 2011 competition was kept the same, despite calls for the number of county matches to be reduced; fewer group matches were proposed for the 2012 season, with the addition of a quarter-final knock-out round.[7]Unicorns competed, and held a fresh set of trials over the winter period.[8]
Participating teams and format
The competition contained three groups of seven. A random draw was used to place the teams into groups. The top team of each group, together with the second best team across all three groups, progressed to two semi-finals, the winners of which faced off in the final for the trophy. The participating teams were the 18 first-class counties plus Scotland, Netherlands and Unicorns.
