Ashes Series safe from world championship (8 January 1999)

8 January 1999

Ashes Series safe from world championship

AFP

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Jan 8 (AFP) - Fears that the century-old Ashes Test series between England and Australia could be swept away under a new world championship format were dispelled by the International Cricket Council on Friday.

"We've always made it quite clear that series like the Ashes and other important Test match series cannot be threatened by a concentration of the tour programme or the introduction of a Test world championship," ICC chief executive David Richards of Australia said.

The ICC will study proposals this weekend to establish a new cycle of fixtures to ensure the smaller Test-playing nations get a chance to face countries like Australia, England and the West Indies Cricket. This was believed to mean England and Australia would have to drop their five-Test series for a three-Test schedule.

But Richards added: "While we're trying to strengthen Test cricket, at no stage are we trying to weaken the strong bits and one of the strong bits is the Ashes.

"I don't see there being any chance at all that the Ashes will be under threat."

Proposals for a world championship would be to play a two-month tournament every four years between the eight Test-playing countries or to reduce the number of one-day matches to give more time for every country to play each other over four years. The team with the best record over the four year-period would be declared world champions.

"I think we've peaked in terms of the one-day cricket and now it's a matter of getting the right balance between the two forms of the game," Richard said.

Despite their emphatic 3-1 win over England in the just-completed series, Australia captain Mark Taylor pleaded for the traditional five-Test formula to be retained.

Source :: AFP