The 2018 English cricket season ran between 1 April and 27 September 2018 and was the 119th in which the County Championship has been an official competition.
Three men's international sides toured England and Wales during the season: Pakistan, Australia and India.
[1] Pakistan also visited Ireland midway through the tour and played the Irish team's first Test match at Malahide near Dublin.
[8] Pakistan played two Test matches against England at Lord's and Headingley at the end of May and beginning of June.
[9] Pakistan won the first Test match by nine wickets on the fourth morning, playing "superbly but unspectacularly"[10] to beat England comprehensively.
[15] Writing on CricInfo, George Dobell's view was that England's defeat was the "culmination of several years' of ECB policies that have disrespected Test cricket".
[16] England won the second Test within three days, defeating Pakistan by an innings and 55 runs in an "emphatic victory".
Despite a century from Jonny Bairstow, England fell short of what would have been their highest ODI run chase.
[26] Australia played two warm-up one-day matches against Sussex and Middlesex at the start of June, winning both.
[29] The final match was closer, England eventually chasing Australia's score of 205 to win by one wicket, having been 114/8 in 29.4 overs at one point.
[25] The England, South Africa and New Zealand women's teams competed in a three-way T20I competition between 20 June and 1 July.
[7] The season began on 1 April with the first of three rounds of matches between first-class counties and the six Marylebone Cricket Club University teams.
The men's County Championship season began on 13 April and was completed on 27 September with each team playing 14 matches.
Each county will play one day/night match spread over four rounds of the competition from June to August.
[41] During August 2018 the ECB announced that the Women's Super League would be expanded for the 2018 season with more group games played.
[44] The Minor Counties Championship began in June and ran until September with teams organised in two divisions based on their geographical location.
[45] The Minor Counties Knockout Trophy was played on a straight knock-out basis over five rounds, a change from previous seasons.
The Finals Days for both one-day competitions was played at the end of August at Wormsley Park in Buckinghamshire.