In 2009, in light of the growth of
Twenty20 cricket with the
Twenty20 Cup,
Indian Premier League and
ICC World Twenty20, the ECB realised that the Pro40 and Friends Provident Trophy were attracting less interest. Plans began to consolidate the
List A competitions into a single 40-over trophy. The competition began in the
2010 English cricket season with
Clydesdale Bank, previously sponsor of the Twenty20 Cup, agreeing to a three-year sponsorship. John Perera, ECB commercial director, stated that "We are delighted to welcome Clydesdale Bank as the title sponsor for the 40-over competition particularly as it gives us an opportunity to build on an already strong working relationship. The Clydesdale Bank 40 is an exciting new competition and the format is designed to comfortably fit into the busy family weekend." A new team, the
Unicorns cricket team, was formed of contractless county players to compete, unpaid,
Warwickshire beat
Somerset in the final of the
inaugural 2010 tournament. The format for the
2011 competition was kept the same, despite calls for the number of county matches to be reduced; fewer group matches were proposed for the 2012 season, with the addition of a quarter-final knock-out round.
Unicorns competed, and held a fresh set of trials over the winter period. ==Participating teams and format==