Cricket Australia looks at expansion

Twenty20 redesign gathers pace

Cricinfo staff

May 21, 2008

Australia plans a major restructure to its domestic Twenty20 competition in two years by developing an event that will be based around the Indian Premier League format. James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, knows the tournament will be unable to mirror the finances of the Indian extravaganza, but a review is underway as to how it would work.

"We're under no illusions as to the contrast in size of the economy and even the huge level of interest in cricket that the BCCI [the Indian board] has been able to reap the benefits from," Sutherland told the Age. "There are lots of challenges, but we're absolutely committed to revamping our Twenty20 competition in a positive fashion. We need to tailor our product to our market, but we still see tremendous benefits being able to flow from Twenty20 cricket that will bring new people to the game."

Over the past three years the domestic tournament has been played over two weeks in late December and early January, with few internationals taking part for their states. The paper reported more matches would be staged in 2008-09.

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