18th April will see the first day of the 2026 Blind Cricket season as a National League Division One match between Northamptonshire Steelbacks and London Metro kicks things off. The following day there are half a dozen matches between the three development leagues.
Staffordshire Wolves will make their National League debut this season as Cheshire Cobras step up to the Northern Development League, whilst RNC Hereford Bulldogs will play twice as many fixtures as they did in 2025.
With changes to team participation and a welcome to the Hertfordshire Comets there are 101 domestic games to be played this summer, excluding the completion of the 2025 David Townley T20 cup where the semi finals and final remain and the Sussex Sharks are looking to be treble winners, having secured the division one title and Primary Club cup.
Those games are 76 league fixtures, 21 cup games and four Comets friendlies. There are also the opportunities available once again to try out the international ball game with Metro hosting three days of competition and the Bablake small ball event.
The programme runs alongside the training events for the men’s and women’s international teams.
There are a couple of significant changes to development level rules for 2026, firstly teams will only change ends every five overs, this is with the hope of speeding up development level matches. Secondly in the north and midlands there will be a fielding circle inside which a team may only have two mid or high partial fielders excluding the bowler or wicketkeeper.
Everyone at BCEW hope that all our players, officials, coaches, volunteers and other supporters have a great 2026 season.
