Sutherland leaves door open for tri-series changes

Cricket Australia has refused to rule out changes to the annual limited-overs tri-nations series, despite announcing a new major sponsor for the next three years. The competition will be known from this season as the Commonwealth Bank Series after the company was given naming rights to the Australia one-day team.

But James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said there were no guarantees the three-team format would go on forever. The bank's sponsorship will cover all ODIs played in Australia until 2009. "We don't have any firm views on how one-day international cricket might look but obviously there are a whole lot of variables," Sutherland said. "We continue to look at ways in which our international program - not just one-day international cricket but Test cricket and Twenty20 cricket - can evolve and change so that we satisfy our customers' needs. In terms of how that might look in the future, who knows?"

The scheduling of most ODIs in Australia, however, is unlikely to be moved from the current block in January and February. "The timeslot works very well," Sutherland said. "We explored a number of options [with the broadcaster Channel 9] for a prime time for one-day international cricket to be played. It's when so many Australians are on holidays and really what we do is we take the cricket circus to towns all around the country in that holiday period and I think that's well accepted."

Australia, England and New Zealand will compete in this year's Commonwealth Bank Series. The 12 preliminary matches begin at the MCG on January 12, followed by the best-of-three finals starting on February 9.