Adelaide to host maiden Ashes day-night Test

Adelaide Oval will host the first-ever day/night Ashes Test next year, following the announcement of the 2017-18 Australian summer schedule.

However, the WACA ground in Perth could be set to miss out of hosting the third Test, in favour of the new purpose-built Perth Stadium, subject to ongoing discussions with the Western Australia government.

The series will begin, once again, at the Gabba in Brisbane, on November 23, and will conclude with back-to-back Tests at Melbourne and Sydney over the Christmas and New Year period. The fifth Test, at the SCG, begins slightly later than usual, on January 4.

As has been the case in previous Ashes campaigns, England's tour party will be given ample opportunity to acclimatise before the series begins, with several warm-up fixtures set to be built into the final itinerary.

"We recognise how big the Ashes is for both home and travelling fans, and the early announcement of the schedule for this series will allow fans here in Australia and abroad to plan their Ashes summer," Cricket Australia's CEO, James Sutherland, said.

"We've now played two Tests in Adelaide in day/night conditions, it's been very well received and we think that it's the place to go for the day/night match next year. We didn't want to play two at this stage, we want to acknowledge the ECB for their support and indeed our players for supporting the day/night Test match.

"I know there are some people who don't necessarily view the day/night Test match as something that's needed for Ashes cricket but we think there'll be more and more day/night test cricket coming up and the success of Adelaide in the last two matches is for all to see."

Sutherland said the Adelaide Ashes match was in safe hands given the success of the first two floodlit Tests against New Zealand and South Africa, aided by the close co-operation of the stadium management authority, the SACA and its highly regarded groundsman Damian Hough.

"I don't think it's a risk anymore," Sutherland said. "Day/night Test cricket has been very successful, we know and understand the stadium management authority in Adelaide and the SACA and the groundsman there they know the formula. It gets better and better and we're very confident in day/night Test cricket."

Five one-day internationals have been scheduled in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth between January 14 and 28, while a T20 international tri-series - the first of its kind - involving New Zealand will take place in February.

Three matches will be hosted in Australia, and four, including the final, in New Zealand. Prior to this, the traditional Prime Minister's XI will be played at Manuka Oval in Canberra against England as a T20 match on Friday, February 2. Sutherland said the triangular series had been a product of favourable circumstances but also a pointer to the future, when league structures would add to the context of bilateral encounters.

"We've tried to give ourselves the most flexible approach to that by working with New Zealand and as it turns out England are travelling to New Zealand for a series immediately after so it tied in nicely to pick up a tri-series there," he said. "There are less issues in overlap between T20 cricket and Test cricket.

"We openly acknowledge Test cricket is our priority and we work around that. At times it's not possible to make it all fit as well as we'd like, and that's why we're pushing so strongly for a different structure around international cricket that hopefully other countries are on board with and hopefully we're heading in the right direction there.

"Some of the ways in which the structure of cricket has been planned out sees one day series and T20 series being co-joined in the future as part of a league and so that's an indication in itself that rather than playing ad hoc, random T20 matches we play them as part of a series and with greater context. Certainly my personal view is that would be a good thing to have more context around T20 internationals. not necessarily playing a whole lot more, but at least having some structure around that."

New Zealand Cricket's chief executive, David White, said the tri-series initiative was a late addition to the programme and too good an opportunity to pass up.

"To host matches against both England and Australia is an exciting development for New Zealand cricket fans," White said. "There is a lot of history - and a healthy rivalry between the three sides, and we expect the series to be well supported."

The Australian women's team will also host a home Ashes series next season, with that schedule and venues to be confirmed in due course.