County Champions Lancashire will start their title defence when they play Sussex at Liverpool on 12-15 April in a repeat of the opening fixture of 2011.
Lancashire are playing four LV= County Championship games at Old Trafford next season, and four at Liverpool in the fixtures announced today. The County start their campaign abroad, against M.C.C. on March 27-30 in the traditional Champion County match which is now played in Abu Dhabi.
The addition of permanent floodlights at Old Trafford sees a switch of emphasis in Lancashire's Friends Life t20 matches, most of which now start at 7pm - including the feature match against Yorkshire on Friday 6 July.
Commenting on the fixtures, Cricket Director Mike Watkinson said: “We worked the fixtures around the ongoing construction programme at Old Trafford and we are delighted to bring Championship cricket back after a season’s absence.
“Prior to 2011 we made a significant investment in Liverpool Cricket Club as we improved the player facilities and also upgraded the pitches. It therefore makes sense for us to continue to play our outground games at Liverpool for another year and due to the construction works at Old Trafford, Liverpool is best equipped to take the early season games. It is also worth noting that Liverpool was voted runner-up in the ECB outground awards at the recent presentation evening in Birmingham, which further supports the allocation of games there.”
Click here for the full Fixture List
Click here to download a printable Word document version of the fixtures