England not keen on six Ashes Tests

The England & Wales Cricket Board is set to turn down Cricket Australia's push for six Ashes Tests in the 2009 series, and hopes to limit the 2010-11 contest in Australia to five Tests as well. Australia are keen to make the most of what is their most lucrative series at home by adding a Hobart match.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, 22,000 tickets have been sold for the first day's play at the MCG between Australia and India, compared with almost 67,000 at the same stage last year, when Boxing Day was sold out for the England Test. England, though, are increasingly concerned about the packed schedule.

"As far as we're concerned the schedule for 2009 revolves around a five-Test Ashes series not six," Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, told the Mirror. "We'll discuss it further with Cricket Australia but those discussions are very much centred around a five-Test series."

England are also concerned with the proximity of their tours to Australia with World Cups. After losing 5-0 in the 2006-07 Ashes, they crashed out of the World Cup in the Caribbean a couple of months later.

Cricket Australia's spokesman Peter Young said: "Our preference in an ideal world is to play six Tests in an Australian summer but we also aware of the fact the problems England has in the structure of its summer. It's still some time off before we are due to go there, and the discussions are ongoing."