WORCESTERSHIRE seconds will compete in a new look Second XI Championship competition during the 2025 campaign.
The tournament will now consist of three groups of six counties.
Teams will play each other once with the tournament now known as the Championship Challenge.
Worcestershire will play three of their five group matches at home, including two at Kidderminster’s Chester Road ground.
The Pears will entertain Essex at Chester Road from July 21 to 24 and Sussex at the same venue from September 8 to 11.
Worcestershire’s other home game will take place at Bromsgrove School from July 28 to 31
The Pears also face trips to Southport and Birkdale CC to take on Lancashire from July 16 to 19 and Rockhampton to face Gloucestershire from September 1 to 4 respectively.
A final for the leading two sides is scheduled for September 16 to 19 with a venue to be confirmed in due course.
Worcestershire have previously taken part in eight to 10 Championship fixtures each season over the past decade.
However, the club have arranged a series of red-ball friendly games next summer.
Leicestershire, the South Asian Cricket Academy and Zimbabwe Emerging XI will provide the opposition in three-day fixtures along with local rivals Warwickshire in a four-day fixture.
The ECB T20 tournament remains unaltered with 10 matches and four warm-up games.
Worcestershire assistant coach, Richard Jones, who oversees the Second XI, said: “They changed the way the Second Eleven fixture list has been drawn up this year.
“I’ve quite enjoyed the process to be honest and the good thing is that overall there will be more cricket than we had last year for the lads.
“There is that block of five Championship games and they have mixed the groups as well, so we play two teams from down south in Essex and Sussex that we normally wouldn’t play against.
“Then we’ve got the ECB T20 format, which is the same as last year, and we’ve managed to organise several red ball friendlies.
“We will still have those challenges around August, as do all the counties, with no scheduled second team cricket for the lads.
“But there is the possibility the opportunity of being involved in the 50 over competition (Metro bank One Day Cup) and some of the lads have gone off to play National Counties cricket in the past.”
