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Ashes Series safe from world championship
AFP
8 January 1999
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Jan 8 (AFP) - Fears that the century-old
Ashes Test series between England and Australia could be swept away
under a new world championship format were dispelled by the
International Cricket Council on Friday.
``We've always made it quite clear that series like the Ashes and other
important Test match series cannot be threatened by a concentration of
the tour programme or the introduction of a Test world championship,''
ICC chief executive David Richards of Australia said.
The ICC will study proposals this weekend to establish a new cycle of
fixtures to ensure the smaller Test-playing nations get a chance to
face countries like Australia, England and the West Indies Cricket.
This was believed to mean England and Australia would have to drop
their five-Test series for a three-Test schedule.
But Richards added: ``While we're trying to strengthen Test cricket, at
no stage are we trying to weaken the strong bits and one of the strong
bits is the Ashes.
``I don't see there being any chance at all that the Ashes will be
under threat.''
Proposals for a world championship would be to play a two-month
tournament every four years between the eight Test-playing countries
or to reduce the number of one-day matches to give more time for every
country to play each other over four years. The team with the best
record over the four year-period would be declared world champions.
``I think we've peaked in terms of the one-day cricket and now it's a
matter of getting the right balance between the two forms of the
game,'' Richard said.
Despite their emphatic 3-1 win over England in the just-completed
series, Australia captain Mark Taylor pleaded for the traditional
five-Test formula to be retained.
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