Australia’s annual triangular one-day cricket series could make its final appearance this summer after Cricket Australia (CA) opted to shelve the tournament to alleviate programming headaches.
While Australia, India and Sri Lanka will participate in the 29th tri-series in February, the 2008-09 summer will take a new look, as CA will schedule Australia to play separate, five-match head-to-head one-day series against South Africa and New Zealand.
Australia will also play three Tests and one Twenty20 game against both the Proteas and Black Caps next summer, and the same format will take place in 2009-10, when the West Indies and Pakistan tour.
CA will assess the success of both seasons before deciding whether to revert to the tri-series, an annual competition since 1979-80, or abandon it for good when England next tour in 2010-11.
The tri-series has had its critics in recent years amid claims it has been too long, predictable and contained too many neutral games.
But CA said its change had more to do with gaining more flexibility over the thorny issue of scheduling.
Scheduling is one of cricket’s major ongoing problems, as eight of the 10 Test-playing nations share the same season.
This summer has highlighted the difficulties CA faces, as India’s current home series against Pakistan means Anil Kumble’s side will not arrive here for a fortnight, leaving Australia a virtual free zone of international cricket in what is usually its busiest time.
“It’s a better fit for us to have teams come in for a short, sharp visit,” Sutherland said.
“Whether the Test matches or one-dayers are together or they’re split, or they’re in a block, that’s something we can vary from series to series and from year to year.”
CA has a preference for playing Test matches at the start of the international summer and one-dayers over the second half, but does not expect to announce its 2008-09 schedule until March.
South Africa have in recent times pushed to host their own Boxing Day Test, but are set to play Australia in next year’s showpiece match at the MCG.
Despite the difficulty over fixturing, Sutherland assured Australian fans the two traditional fixtures, the Boxing Day Test and the new year’s Test at the SCG, were not in danger of being moved for the next decade.
“There is absolutely nothing on the horizon to suggest those are in doubt,” he said.
“We know that because we know the program through to 2012 and we’ve seen drafts through to 2017 and there is nothing to indicate there will be any sort of problem.”
Australian opener Matthew Hayden last week became the latest critic of the tri-series by saying it needed a revamp.
But Sutherland said television ratings and attendances refuted the suggestion the tri-series needed abandoning for good.
“The format doesn’t need to be a 12-15 game format, it can be a shorter format or whatever and they’re things we will look at,” he said.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to think that we are condoning the view that the tri-series is tired and boring.”
The success of the change will determine whether CA reverts to a tri-series in 2010-11.
CA could opt to schedule a shorter tri-series against England and Sri Lanka, which would also meet the England and Wales Cricket Board’s preference to shorten their tours of Australia before World Cup campaigns.
CA is also likely to schedule only one Twenty20 match against touring teams so that the new format remains a complement to the other forms of the game.
But it cannot commit to staging the Chappell-Hadlee series against New Zealand annually, and is yet to decide whether it uses the five matches against the Kiwis in 2008-09 as that summer’s trophy series.
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