England Lions wrong-footed by Australia

There will be no Lions cricket in England this year for the first time since 2006 after Cricket Australia revealed they had no plans for an 'A' tour of the UK during the Ashes.

While the 2013 summer saw Australia send something approaching a shadow squad to Scotland, Ireland and the UK in the lead-up to the Test series, CA have now confirmed they will not be sending a second team this year.

CA's team performance manager Pat Howard said this was largely due to the fact that, where in 2013 the Ashes was preceded by the 50-over Champions Trophy, this time a large Australian Test squad will be together in the West Indies for two Tests immediately prior to arriving in England. There is an Australia A tour planned, but it will be to India in late July and August as part of a three-year agreement with the BCCI and Cricket South Africa.

"The lead-in to the last Ashes series was white-ball cricket with the Champions Trophy, so there wasn't a red ball lead-in, so what we needed to create, particularly for red-ball specialists, was the Australia A tour to Scotland, Ireland and Gloucestershire," Howard told ESPNcricinfo. "This time we've got a red ball lead-in with the West Indies series and with an extended squad we can make sure we get the preparation right for those players, so we've got a strong squad in red-ball preparation leading into the Ashes.

"What we did is move some one-day games against West Indies into 2015-16, where we have a tri-series [in the Caribbean]. So we've got a consistent red ball lead-in. Underneath that, we do have games against India A in July and August while the third and fourth Tests are on. We will also have players in county cricket who can be called on if and when required, and we know who those players are as well.

"We've made sure there's a fair gap between the last Test in Jamaica [ends June 17] and the first game in Kent [starts June 25] and we also worked closely with the West Indies board to make sure the second destination had direct flights into England, so that any of those times and adjustments are mediated. There are two four-day games against Kent and Essex in the lead-in, so making sure we have enough time has been a priority."

Howard was adamant the lack of a direct "shadow" tour for the Ashes had not been a cost-saving measure. "The driver here is the West Indies lead-in - you make sure you prioritise the Ashes when you're doing your budgets," he said. "We believe having guys around the West Indies group, having guys around the England group, county cricket and Australia A experience for the 2017 India Test tour all have multi-functional roles in terms of getting experience - and getting experience in the subcontinent is important too."

Though such matches had not been scheduled into the fixture list, the ECB admitted they had expected Australia to send a side and that they have been unable to confirm alternative touring teams in their place. "I can't speak for England," Howard said. "They may have assumed that after 2013, we'd do the same thing in 2015, but we've been working backwards from the schedule and made sure we made amendments to the West Indies tour to make it a better fit and cleaner lead-in to the Ashes.

"When we toured with Australia A in 2013 it wasn't a bilateral, there was no owing, and we just went over and paid for our own ability to do that, organised games with Scotland and Ireland because of the county season then worked with the ECB for the Gloucestershire game."

Whatever the reasons, CA's decision leaves England without Lions fixtures in the coming season for the first time in almost a decade. That news will come as a relief to county coaches who risk seeing their squads diluted during the domestic campaign, but it will be a blow to the England set-up who place great store in the development benefits of the Lions programme.

The ECB hope touring 'A' sides will return in 2016, with their preferred option being a tri-series between the Lions and two overseas teams.