Sheffield Shield final could be axed

The Sheffield Shield final could be cut from Australia's domestic season in two years as Cricket Australia continues to search for ways to expand the Twenty20 Big Bash. Squeezing a longer Twenty20 tournament in would make it difficult to keep same amount of games in the Sheffield Shield and FR Cup.

One option is to scrap the first-class final and instead award the trophy to the state that finishes on top of the table after the ten regular rounds. The five-day decider was only introduced in 1982-83 and the enormous advantage of hosting - the home team needs only to draw to win the title - has caused some dull finals dominated by ridiculously high scores.

"There's obviously been discussion around the traps," Tony Dodemaide, Cricket Victoria's chief executive, told the Herald Sun. "To expand the T20, the alternatives are to extend the season or to find room, and trimming either the Shield or one-day cricket are the only alternatives. The other thing to take into account with the Shield final is that six venues have to make provision for staging it, but five of them wind up idle in the end."

Cricket Australia wants to fit in more Big Bash matches from 2011-12, without impinging on the international calendar or, if possible, the Sheffield Shield. One suggestion was to start the four-day competition in northern Australia early in the season, when southern venues could be too wet, although it wasn't an idea that pleased Australia's captain Ricky Ponting.