Willey backs earlier Finals Day in T20 Blast

David Willey has played 324 T20 games around the world, taking 327 wickets and scoring more than 4,250 runs

Northants Steelbacks captain David Willey has called for T20 Blast Finals Day to be reinstated earlier in the domestic season.

The climax of county cricket's shortest format was played in July in 2022 and 2023, but was pushed back to September last summer.

In the 22 years since T20 cricket made its debut in England, only four finals have been played in July, with the majority taking place in August - a month which is now dominated by The Hundred, and this year's Finals Day will be on 13 September.

"The schedule is ridiculous, I won't beat around the bush there. Having that huge gap before you play a quarter-final shafted us last year," Willey told BBC Radio Northampton.

"I think you need to block out parts of the season for each format. I think there's nothing better than you play the Blast finals just before The Hundred starts - it makes more sense to do that and then it's just where you fit the County Championship in around that."

Willey believes the overall domestic season could be extended into the first part of October to fit everything in.

"I think the season could be pushed back a little bit, given the challenges groundsmen face to produce good wickets at this time of year, with usually pretty poor conditions," he added.

"Very often we put our feet up in October and it's glorious and dry, there is potential to do that."

He continued: "Whether you do reduce games there (in the Championship), I don't know. I appreciate it's a busy season but part and parcel of county cricket, and actually one of the beauties of it, is that there's so many more dimensions than just preparing as best as you can for each game. There's a little bit of give and take along the way."

Willey bowled Northants to their first T20 title in 2013 with a hat-trick in the final and the Steelbacks lifted the trophy again in 2016.

And he believes the arrival of Australian Darren Lehmann as head coach will help them challenge again after reaching the quarter-finals last year.

Willey previously played under Lehmann in The Hundred for Northern Superchargers and described it as a "really exciting appointment" for the club.

"He's a self-confessed cricket nut, he studies the game, watches the game, played county cricket for Yorkshire for some time - he was an incredible player and has won pretty much everything there is to win as a coach as well," Willey said.

"That knowledge and understanding of the county game, understanding the schedule of the county game is a big part of it, and he'll be able to push guys and challenge guys with the care that he does is going to be great for the club."

Northants start the new season on 4 April with a County Championship game against Kent - and their T20 Blast campaign begins on 30 May when they are away to Yorkshire, the former club of both Lehmann and Willey.

Although primarily a white-ball player nowadays, Willey is willing to consider playing some Championship cricket in the right circumstances.

"Come September, if the side are in a position to play for something - I don't want to take a position if there's nothing to play for, get young guys ready for the following season - but if they're in contention for promotion and if they need me, I'll try and help the boys out and get us across the line," he said.

Although now 35, and having retired from international cricket in 2023 after 116 white-ball games when he was not offered a new ECB contract, he still believes he could do a job for England.

The all-rounder added: "The senior bowlers that have been playing have very often suffered with injuries and to have someone that's been in global competitions and been around the group a long time, I feel I could still add value helping the next crop of English white-ball cricketers coming through."