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It's back!

The Twenty20 Cup begins its third season tonight promising to be bigger and even more successful than the two before it.

The Twenty20 Cup begins its third season tonight promising to be bigger and even more successful than the two before it.

Some counties are already reporting sell-outs and ticket sales have been brisk across the board.

Nine fixtures take place tonight with holders Leicestershire taking on Nottinghamshire and Roses rivals Yorkshire and Lancashire clashing at Headingley in the pick of the matches.

Many side events are again planned for the evening fixtures over the next fortnight with hot tubs, beach parties and fancy dress competitions all taking place, with Worcestershire even hosting a pitch-side wedding reception.

The blend of serious cricket and entertainment that has been so successful over the past two years is again likely to be in evidence and Leicestershire are looking forward to the competition.

Foxes captain HD Ackerman, who joined the club from Gauteng over the winter, said: "Twenty20 is extremely huge in this country, and I know our marketing department in particular are targeting another big season in it for us.

"One thing is our guys are a very confident bunch as far as Twenty20 cricket is concerned.

"They have been at finals day two years in a row and were champions last year - so I will be asking a lot of questions before we go out on the field to find out how they went about it."

Surrey, the undoubted masters of the shortened game, begin their campaign against Kent at Beckenham.

The Lions won the inaugural Twenty20 Cup in 2003 and last year's final loss to Leicestershire was the first time they had tasted defeat in the new format.

Their one-day form this season, however, has not been good, the Lions being bottom of the totesport League.

The Twenty20 Cup has been further expanded this year with counties now playing all their group rivals home and away before the best eight teams move into a new quarter-final round.

The north, south and mid/west/Wales groups remain unchanged with round-robin matches taking place over the next two weeks. The quarter-finals will be played on July 18, with finals day - featuring the two semis and the final - being held at The Oval on July 30.

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