The 2017 County Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2017 Specsavers County Championship), was the 118th cricket County Championship season. It was announced in March 2016 that the season would feature eight teams in Division One and ten teams in Division Two, meaning that at the end of the 2016 season only one team was promoted from Division Two whilst two were relegated from Division One.^[1] The first round of fixtures began on 7 April, with the final matches completed on 28 September. All of the fixtures starting on 26 June 2017 were played as day/night matches.^[2]

Following a series of financial "bailout" payments made by the England and Wales Cricket Board to Durham during the 2016 season, the county, which had finished fourth in Division One at the end of the season, were relegated to Division Two in place of the eighth place team, Hampshire.^[3] Durham were also placed under a salary cap administered by the ECB until 2020 and started the 2017 Championship season with a deduction of 48 points.^[3] Ahead of the season, each team played a first-class match against a MCC University team.

Derbyshire

Durham

Essex

Glamorgan

Gloucestershire

Hampshire

Kent

Lancashire

Leicestershire

Middlesex

Northamptonshire

Nottinghamshire

Somerset

Surrey

Sussex

Warwickshire

Worcestershire

Yorkshire

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Home grounds of each County.

Teams

The 2017 Championship was divided into two divisions, Division One with eight teams, Division Two with 10 teams.

Teams in both divisions played a total of 14 games, with all Division One teams playing each other twice, while Division Two teams played five counties twice and four once.

Division One

  Team promoted from Division Two

Team	Primary home ground	Other grounds	Coach	Captain	Overseas player(s)	Refs
Essex	County Ground, Chelmsford	—	Chris Silverwood	Ryan ten Doeschate	Neil Wagner (Apr-Jun) Mohammad Amir (Jun-Sep)
Hampshire	Rose Bowl, Southampton	—	Craig White	James Vince	George Bailey
Lancashire	Old Trafford, Manchester	—	Glen Chapple	Steven Croft	Ryan McLaren
Middlesex	Lord's, London	Merchant Taylors' School Ground, Northwood Uxbridge Cricket Club Ground, Uxbridge	Richard Scott	Adam Voges	Adam Voges
Somerset	County Ground, Taunton	—	Matthew Maynard	Tom Abell	Dean Elgar
Surrey	The Oval, London	Woodbridge Road, Guildford	Michael Di Venuto	Gareth Batty	Kumar Sangakkara Aaron Finch (Jul)
Warwickshire	Edgbaston, Birmingham	—	Jim Troughton	Ian Bell	Jeetan Patel
Yorkshire	Headingley, Leeds	North Marine Road Ground, Scarborough	Andrew Gale	Gary Ballance	Peter Handscomb

Division Two

  Team relegated from Division One

Team	Primary home ground	Other grounds[4]	Coach	Captain	Overseas player(s)	Refs
Derbyshire	County Ground, Derby	Queen's Park, Chesterfield	Kim Barnett	Billy Godleman	Jeevan Mendis (Apr-Jun) Imran Tahir (Jun-Sep)
Durham	Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street	—	Jon Lewis	Paul Collingwood	Stephen Cook (Apr-Jun) Tom Latham (Jun-Sep)
Glamorgan	SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff	Penrhyn Avenue, Rhos-on-Sea St Helen's, Swansea	Robert Croft	Jacques Rudolph	Jacques Rudolph
Gloucestershire	County Ground, Bristol	College Ground, Cheltenham	Richard Dawson	Gareth Roderick	Cameron Bancroft (Apr–May) Michael Klinger (May–Sep)
Kent	St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury	Kent County Cricket Ground, Beckenham Nevill Ground, Royal Tunbridge Wells	Matt Walker	Sam Northeast	Wayne Parnell (Apr-May) Yasir Shah (Jun-Jul) Adam Milne (Jun-Sep)
Leicestershire	Grace Road, Leicester	—	Pierre de Bruyn	Mark Cosgrove	Clint McKay
Northamptonshire	County Ground, Northampton	—	David Ripley	Alex Wakely	Rory Kleinveldt
Nottinghamshire	Trent Bridge, Nottingham	—	Peter Moores	Chris Read	James Pattinson
Sussex	County Ground, Hove	Arundel Castle Cricket Club Ground, Arundel	Mark Davis	Luke Wright	Vernon Philander (Apr-Jun)
Worcestershire	New Road, Worcester	—	Steve Rhodes	Joe Leach	John Hastings

Standings

Teams received 16 points for a win, 8 for a tie and 5 for a draw. Bonus points (a maximum of 5 batting points and 3 bowling points) could be scored during the first 110 overs of each team's first innings.^[5]