MELBOURNE (Reuters)
The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) has defended itself against complaints from New Zealand and South Africa that the programme for their triangular series is stacked in Australia's favour.

Both Stephen Fleming and Shaun Pollock have complained the schedule is unfair because Australia do not have to play on consecutive days.

But the ACB's chief executive James Sutherland dismissed their complaints on Wednesday, saying all three teams agreed to the draw before the competition began.

"Before the teams arrived in Australia, both New Zealand and South Africa agreed to the structure of the tour," Sutherland said.

Under the format used in Australia's annual one-day series, there are usually four matches a week with games held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

For commercial reasons Australia never have two games in a single weekend, essentially to ensure that they play at least once in each of the country's state capitals.

"It's a very complex exercise," Sutherland said. "In building a programme, you're trying to deal with a number of different variables."

Australia lost their first three matches of the series before rebounding to win their last two. They are currently second behind New Zealand on the table with less than half of the round-robin matches remaining. The top two sides go on to meet in a best-of-three finals series.

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