Friday 5 February 2010

The Gabba will host a one-day international and a Tour 50-over game against Sri Lanka in late October and early November in a radical departure from regular Cricket Australia fixturing.

The full fixture list for the 2010-11 summer was released today by Cricket Australia, with Brisbane being allocated two one-day internationals and the traditional 3 mobile First Test against England, which starts in late November

The XXXX GOLD Queensland Bulls will play Sri Lanka on Friday 22 October, with the Australia-Sri Lanka match-up the third and final game of the Commonwealth Bank Series on Sunday 7 November. The other Gabba one-dayer is against England on 30 January 2011.

Queensland Cricket chief executive Graham Dixon was pleased to see the high profile games being introduced earlier in the summer.

“The months of October and November are prime real estate for cricket and we should be making the best value from that property,” Dixon said.

“Cricket needs to be whetting the appetite of cricket and sport lovers in October and we must find the right product to do that.”

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland confirmed the reconfigured fixture was designed to maximise interest in the game.

“I don’t think we’ve ever played one-day internationals so early in a home season so we hope this will have people talking cricket a lot earlier than they might normally would be,” Sutherland said.

Dixon said that at this stage, the All*Star Twenty20 game which was introduced in Brisbane two years ago as a curtain-raiser to the international summer, had not been programmed.

“However we are quite hopeful that Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association will continue with this concept,’’ Dixon said.

“We believe the All*Star game has a genuine place in the season calendar and had begun to establish itself as a strong lead-in to the international component of the season through its ability to create interest both in our marketplace and also around the country with the strong television ratings it provided for Channel Nine,’’ he said.

With the Ashes series starting in Brisbane on Thursday 25 November, Cricket Australia preferred to provide its Tests players with match practice in the Weet-Bix Sheffield Shield competition in the lead-up, following the Sri Lankans’ visit.

Australia will play a Twenty20 game at the start of the Sri Lankan tour in Perth on 31 October.

Sri Lanka currently sit sixth on the ICC World ODI rankings, but only marginally behind fourth-placed New Zealand. Australia is at No.1, comfortably ahead of India.

England will be better-prepared for the first Test of the Ashes series than at any time in the past two decades, with three warm-up matches against State sides.

They have three-day matches against WA, SA and an Australian XI before going into battle at the Gabba.

The Australia A game will be a possibility for a number of the XXXX GOLD Bulls players who are currently pushing for higher honours.

2010-11 Ticket on-sale dates

Australian Cricket Family: Wednesday 14 July 2010

General Public: Tuesday 20 July 2010 through Ticketmaster.com.au

The Australian Cricket Family offers priority access to 2010-11 3 mobile Ashes Series ticket. Join now through cricket.com.au.

Corporate packages for the Ashes series and 2010-11 season are also available from Queensland Cricket. Contact Tanya Dickson on 3292 3167.

2010-11 Australian international summer of cricket

KFC Twenty20 International

31 October 2010: Australia v Sri Lanka, Perth

Commonwealth Bank Series

3 November 2010: Australia v Sri Lanka, Melbourne

5 November 2010: Australia v Sri Lanka, Sydney

7 November 2010: Australia v Sri Lanka, Brisbane

3 mobile Ashes Series 2010-11

25 – 29 November 2010: Australia v England, Brisbane

3 – 7 December 2010: Australia v England, Adelaide

16 – 20 December 2010: Australia v England, Perth

26 – 30 December 2010: Australia v England, Melbourne

3 – 7 January 2011: Australia v England, Sydney

KFC Twenty20 International

12 January 2011: Australia v England, Adelaide

14 January 2011: Australia v England, Melbourne

Commonwealth Bank Series

16 January 2011: Australia v England, Melbourne

21 January 2011: Australia v England, Hobart

23 January 2011: Australia v England, Sydney

26 January 2011: Australia v England, Adelaide

30 January 2011: Australia v England, Brisbane

2 February 2011: Australia v England, Sydney

6 February 2011: Australia v England, Perth

Tour matches

22 October 2010: Queensland v Sri Lanka, Brisbane

24 October 2010: New South Wales v Sri Lanka, Sydney

27 October 2010 (T20): New South Wales v Sri Lanka, Sydney

5 – 7 November 2010: Western Australia v England, Perth

11 – 13 November 2010: South Australia v England, Adelaide

17 – 20 November 2010: Australia A v England, Hobart

10 – 12 December 2010: Victoria v England, Melbourne

10 January 2011: PM’s XI v England, Canberra

* Note – Schedule current as at 5 February 2010. Cricket Australia reserves the right in its absolute discretion to change or amend the international program at any time, without notice.