Hilditch and Co safe for now

Any overhaul of Australia's selection panel is expected to be delayed despite the Ashes loss and a review from a major Cricket Australia report encouraging change. The Cricket Australia board has its AGM on Thursday and Friday and one of the items for discussion is a Player Pathway Review Committee recommendation of a full-time selector among the four-man group, which is chaired by Andrew Hilditch.

There were reports after the Ashes loss that Hilditch, an Adelaide solicitor, would not accept an increased role and that another selector was considering stepping down. While James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive, was unsure what would be the outcome of the meeting, he said the structure of the player pathway was more important in the short term and indicated a reshuffle was unlikely.

"I think there are a few steps down the path before we really get into a major review or overhaul of the way the selectors do their job," he said.

The panel also includes Merv Hughes, Jamie Cox and David Boon, who were criticised throughout the Ashes tour for their decisions, starting with picking an unbalanced tour party and finishing with their non-selection of Nathan Hauritz on a spinning wicket at The Oval. However, the trip finished well when a young squad secured a 6-1 win in the one-day series against England before the unit went on to lift the Champions Trophy in South Africa last week.

"Selectors are reviewed from time to time in terms of performance," Sutherland said. "Full-time selectors are tied in to the question of the pathway and how we get that right. The talent identification needs to be done better first, then perhaps we look at the avenues about the role of selectors and how much time they spend doing the job."

Another area that is not due to be dumped soon is one-day cricket even though there are increasing fears of its relevance with the emergence of Twenty20. Shane Warne said in August it had "passed its sell-by date" and the players are focusing more on the shorter and more lucrative form of the game. However, Sutherland said the 50-over format was maintaining its popularity for Australian supporters at the ground and on television.

"One-day cricket is a game that has been very important for the development of cricket and it's played a major part in the game's revenue streams going forward, especially through to the 2015 World Cup," he said. "The game will continue to evolve.

"The facts of the matter are about one-day cricket is it is still incredibly popular, whether you look at television ratings or attendances, all the things we monitor really closely. TV ratings were higher last year than they were for the past couple of years in one-day cricket. It's still very popular, and the TV stations love it."