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Twenty20 competition confirmed

After a three successful trail games Cricket Australia has confirmed that the State sides will contest a Twenty20 competition next January.

After a three successful trail games Cricket Australia has confirmed that the State sides will contest a Twenty20 competition next January.

Six matches will be played in January 2006 between the New Year's Test in Sydney and the triangular one-day series – with every state to host one match –.

Australia's first organised tournament comes after strong crowds attended Twenty20 matches in Perth, Adelaide and Hobart this year, and it will be played in addition to the Pura Cup and ING Cup competitions.

A Twenty20 final will also be played at a venue yet to be determined.

In other developments announced today, Hobart will host its first Test since 2001-02 next summer, against West Indies, while Perth will host one of the three Tests against South Africa.

There was also good news for Adelaide, which will host one of the tri-series finals along with Sydney, with Brisbane to host the third final, if required.

Melbourne, which has traditionally hosted one of the tri-series finals, will instead host the three limited-overs clashes between Australia and a Rest of the World XI in October, which will kick off the 2005-06 international season.

Twenty20 cricket had made a good first impression with Australian crowds, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said.

"The Australian public has told us they love Twenty20 and we want to offer fans in each state a chance to see this exciting new format next summer," he said.

"We were particularly interested to see new, first-time spectators in Perth, Adelaide and Hobart, including young people, families and girls and women.

"We also believe it is possible that players, once they get some experience with this new format, might learn skills that might transfer to the ODI arena in the same way that skills learned in 50-over cricket have transferred to longer forms of the game."

The format of the Twenty20 competition is yet to be set, but the finalists are likely to be decided on a points basis.

South Africa and West Indies will both play three Tests in Australia in 2005-06, while Sri Lanka is expected to take the Windies' place in the tri-series alongside the Proteas.

While the dates and venues for the Tests are yet to be set, Hobart fans will be delighted at news of a Test, the first at Bellerive Oval since the rain-affected draw Australia and New Zealand played in 2001-02.

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