English County: Surrey, Middlesex to play pre-season friendly from July 26

The pre-season friendly behind closed doors means the English County is likely to begin in August; the match will be streamed live on Surrey's Facebook page.

A general view of the Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket Club.

 

In a major development, Surrey annouced on Wednesday that it will play Middlesex in a pre-season friendly at the Kia Oval on July 26 and July 27 in a closed environment.

In a statement, the English County side confirmed that the match will be a two-day friendly and will be played with a red ball. "It will pit the two London rivals against each other, as both sides prepare to hopefully return to competitive action the following weekend," the statement read.

The action will take place behind closed doors but will be streamed, with a multi-camera production, on the official Surrey Facebook page and kiaoval.com.

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Alec Stewart, Surrey CCC Director of Cricket, said “I’m really excited to hopefully see cricket return to the Kia Oval at the end of July and then for the rest of the season.”

Even as international cricket will return to England on July 8 as West Indies takes on the home team for a three match Test series, there was no clarity on the future of county cricket. But with two top teams deciding to play a friendly, there's certainly some ray of hope.