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England face packed 2017 cricket schedule

Record-breaking summer announced by ECB, featuring Ireland, South Africa, West Indies and the Champions Trophy

England will host seven Tests in the space of two months against South Africa and West Indies in 2017, the England and Wales Cricket Board revealed as it announced its 2017 schedule on Friday. 

England are also set to play their first international match in Somerset in 34 years, in a summer that will feature three one-day internationals and three Twenty20s against South Africa before the four-Test series begins on July 6 through to August 8.

Between the ODIs and T20s, England will host the Champions Trophy, with the fixtures for that tournament already released.

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The action begins in Bristol on May 5 with the first of two one-dayers against Ireland, the earliest in the year England have ever hosted a home fixture, and will wrap up with the last of six limited-overs games against West Indies in Southhampton on September 29, the latest their international summer season has ever finished.

Nine days after the fourth and last Test against South Africa, England starts its three-Test series against the West Indies.

There are only three days between the first two Tests at Edgbaston and Headingley, which will be followed by one T20 and five ODIs.

Taunton, Somerset's home, will host the second ODI against South Africa, the first international it has staged since the 1983 World Cup.

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The last time England hosted the Champions Trophy in 2013, the hosts played 23 matches over the course of the season.

Should they make the final of the tournament next year, they will have played 26 matches for the summer, but even if they fail to advance from the group stage, they will still play 24 - more than in any previous home summer.

It's an action-packed schedule, particularly for England's players who take part in all three formats - such as Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes and Alex Hales – and the respite will be brief at the end, before England embark on their next Ashes tour of Australia in the 2017-18 summer.

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In addition to the busy schedule of men's cricket, England will also host the Women's World Cup from June 26, with matches to be played in Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lord’s and Somerset.

"With three different international teams coming here next summer and this country playing host to two major ICC global events – the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Women’s World Cup - there will be a feast of international cricket to excite us in England and Wales," ECB Chief Executive Officer Tom Harrison said.

"Both the international and the domestic schedule will have a different shape to previous years. 

"The early season block for the One-Day Cup – with a new mid-season date for its Lord’s final – will support both England’s ICC Champions Trophy preparations and our longer term planning for the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2019."