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Australia’s World Cup squad will get on a plane on Wednesday with injuries a concern, but the coach Tim Nielsen hopes the selectors don’t risk sending too many unfit men to defend the title. Ricky Ponting (finger), Michael Hussey (hamstring) and Nathan Hauritz (shoulder) have all been racing to prove their fitness for the tournament, while some of their potential replacements are also struggling, including Xavier Doherty (back) and Shaun Marsh (hamstring).The squad heads to India this week and their first practice match is on Sunday against India in Bangalore, eight days before their opening game of the tournament proper, against Zimbabwe. Hussey said on the weekend that he would find it difficult to be fully fit for the first couple of outings, while Hauritz, who dislocated his shoulder during the recent ODIs against England, was bowling in the nets last week and said he had no doubt he would be fit for the World Cup.But while Australia might be able to carry one injured player at the start of the tournament, it’s risky to allow too many men to board the plane at less than 100% fitness. Nielsen said he believed the squad could not take such a chance with the World Cup on the line.”I can’t afford to have two, three or four guys that we’re uncertain about,” Nielsen said. “It means we’ve only got 11 fit ready to go at the start. That’s the quandary we face. What is the role the players who are injured play? Do we have back-up for that position? If we have an injury to somebody in the team at the moment is the injured person the next cab off the rank or the only possible replacement or do we have other options? All those things will be thrown into the mix.”One positive is the progress being made by Ponting, who missed the Sydney Test after aggravating his broken finger during the Boxing Day Test. Ponting had surgery on the little finger on his left hand after the Melbourne game, and by the time the World Cup opener arrives it will have had nearly seven weeks of recovery time. He hasn’t returned to fielding yet, but believes he could play if the Australians had an important match tomorrow.”I’m a lot better now than I was last week,” Ponting said on Monday night at the Allan Border Medal ceremony in Melbourne. “I’ve been back in the nets this week, I’ve had three good hits and a bit of time out there. It’s probably a bit more advanced than I thought it would be.”The spin position shapes up as one of the more serious issues, with Steven Smith also battling a hip muscle injury, along with the problems that are troubling Hauritz and Doherty. Smith’s injury shouldn’t be a major concern, though the more serious situation with Hauritz, added to the likelihood that Hussey won’t be fit for the start of the World Cup, leaves the selectors with some headaches.”We’ve got our fingers crossed for both those guys,” Ponting said. “Their injuries couldn’t have come at a worse time for us, looking forward to the World Cup. They’re both very senior members of our side. We’ve got our fingers crossed for both those guys and I know the physios and doctors have been doing a lot of talking today about those two. Hopefully they come up.”The coach Nielsen said it was a delicate balancing act: “If we’re going to replace them we’re going to have to rule them out of the tournament full stop. That’s the first question we’re going to have to answer. Are they going to take any part in the tournament in a timeframe that’s going to work for us?”Once we make that decision then it’s, okay, if we are going to replace them, is the replacement ready to go straight away or are we better off taking the named player and they might be ready at the same time? All those different things that come into the equation.”Australia have two warm-up games before the World Cup begins in earnest, and they have six pool matches before finding out if they have progressed to the next round. Australia are in a group with Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya.

Paul Collingwood has been told to go away and clear his mind before he regains his place in England’s one-day side, after being dropped for the opening match against Australia in Melbourne. Collingwood has been a fixture of the ODI outfit for nearly a decade and has played at two World Cups, but despite being axed he appears almost certain to add a third to his resume, according to the captain Andrew Strauss.”It is a bit of a form thing,” Strauss said. “We feel that he’s been struggling with the bat for a while now. The best way for him to come back is to spend a bit of time out of the side and refresh his mind. He’s obviously a very important part of our one-day setup and will be going forward to the World Cup, but he’s not in great nick at the moment. It’s tough on him but it would have been tough on someone else to be left out as well.”Collingwood, 34, has retired from Test cricket, ending with a miserable series personally, as he made 83 runs in the five Tests at 13.83, but still an enormously satisfying one as his team won the Ashes away from home. He remains England’s Twenty20 captain but in the 50-over format, he faces a fight to win back his place, and it seems unlikely he’ll be in the mix until much later in the series.”It’s a seven-match series, so there are a lot of [selection] permutations,” Strauss said. “We’d like him to spend the next week or so just clearing his mind, and obviously doing some work in the nets, but primarily getting his mind clear and making sure he’s very clear on how he wants to play his game.”He’s not going to change his game, he’s going to play the same way. But sometimes you need a clear mind, and you don’t want to be thinking too much about the dismissals you’ve had recently, you just want to be able to go out and see the ball and hit the ball.”The form of Kevin Pietersen could make it even tougher for Collingwood to force his way back in, although it also provides him with some inspiration. Pietersen was dropped during the one-day series against Pakistan in September but in his first match back, proved he has plenty to offer the side, in compiling a classy 78 from 75 balls in the six-wicket loss at the MCG.”He showed his quality today,” Strauss said. “He’s able to clear the boundary, kept putting pressure on the opposition bowlers. He’s had a bit of a fallow period in one-day cricket but he showed his class today.”Pietersen’s efforts were not enough against an Australian side carried by a herculean 161 from Shane Watson, and it’s the second consecutive win for the hosts after they triumphed in the second Twenty20 in Melbourne on Friday. But there is plenty of time remaining for England to turn things around.”They’re one-nil up in the series now,” Strauss said, “but we’re still very confident that we can win this series.”

Adam Gilchrist, the former Australia wicketkeeper, will be the captain of Kings XI Punjab for the fourth season of the IPL, the Punjab coach Michael Bevan has said. Bevan said Punjab bought Gilchrist, who led Hyderabad to the trophy in the IPL’s second season, specifically for his leadership skills. Gilchrist was bought on the first day of the auction for $900,000.”The main reason we picked him was because he is the captain,” Bevan, who was appointed Punjab coach four days before the auction, said. He also brushed aside any fears of form or fitness issues Gilchrist might have considering he is the second oldest player in the IPL at 39 years. “Even if he is not at the peak of his career, I still feel as a leader he has a lot to offer. In Twenty20 cricket you are not asking the guy to strike at 120 in the opening position. You are asking for guys to strike at 140 or 150 and Gilly is the type of player who can turn in three or four match-winning performances over the season.”It was Gilchrist who contacted Bevan, with whom he played alongside in the 1999 and 2003 World Cup winning sides, as soon as he heard the news. “He pretty much rang back straightaway and has been involved in the team-building process in the auction after that. That is a great sign; him lending his experience with some of the players he has played with. As a coach, you want your captain immersed in what we are trying to achieve.”Gilchrist was the first player bought by Punjab, on January 8. They proceeded to buy 10 more players, with only four Indian players, the backbone of any IPL team, adding wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, batting allrounder Abhishek Nayar, legspinner Piyush Chawla and seamer Praveen Kumar.Bevan reckoned spending big money on some of the Indian players might have been a gamble, but he did admit he was new at the IPL poker table. “I was not sure paying two million for a really good player would pay off, but we will wait and see.” Punjab had at their disposal a purse of $9 million, but came out of the auction with $2.17 million left unspent. Though he did not say it plainly, Bevan confessed Punjab might have erred in not risking more money on players. “Perhaps we misread the market a little and misread the pricing. There was some fever-pitch bidding, with Indian players going for sky-high prices which we never expected.”Even though he knew Indian players would go for pretty high prices because there were only 48 of them, Bevan was surprised by how much some of the younger players got. “There was always going to be a premium on the Indian players. We were happy to go with some good solid younger players, but even they went for lots of money.”Punjab lost out on several players whom they started to bid for, only to be outbid by other franchises. Mahela Jayawardene, who played for them in the first three seasons of the IPL, was bought by Kochi for $1.5 million after Punjab had made a $1.4 million bid. They bid the same amount for Yuvraj Singh, Punjab’s captain in the first two seasons and their icon player, only to lose him to the new Pune franchise for $1.8 million. They also lost bidding wars for Australia allrounder Cameron White, India batsman Rohit Sharma, and allrounder Irfan Pathan, who was part of their team for the first three seasons.Bevan pointed out that the team owners had decided to stick to a certain budget. “As a coach you also got to go with your budget constraints and hence we had to work out the pricing. It is all part of the big picture. It is just not having the ability to get anyone you want.”Punjab will now have to fill up the rest of their squad with the uncapped Indian players and India Under-19 players.Bevan admitted that taking over as the Punjab coach is the most high-profile job he has ever done, and said the fact he entered late into the piece meant he was a little bit nervous before the auction. But he remains confident of Punjab’s prospects because of the presence of Gilchrist.

With most of the quarter-final spots decided on the third day itself, it was a fairly insipid fourth day in the last round of the Ranji Trophy. Railways reached the knockout phase for the first time in six seasons after completing an easy win over Bengal. Mumbai, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are familiar names in the quarter-final line-up, while Haryana repeated last year’s success and reached the knockout phase. Baroda are in the next round as well, for the first time since they reached the semi-finals in 2007-08. Uttar Pradesh have been the major disappointments of the season, failing to get out of the group phase for the first time in four years, while Saurashtra, who reached the semi-finals in 2007-08 and 2008-09, barely escaped relegation. Assam and Himcahal Pradesh will be plying their trade in the Plate League next season.

Group A

Railways completed a miserable Ranji Trophy season for Bengal with a victory by an innings and 10 runs at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. The hosts needed less than an hour to wrap up proceedings, with the last four batsmen failing to score. Three of them perished in similar fashion, edging the ball to the keeper off Jai P Yadav, who finished with 5 for 20, as Bengal crumbled to 134 all out. The win earns Railways, who finished second in Group A behind Mumbai, a trip to Baroda for a quarter-final encounter.Having made sure of a place in the quarters, Tamil Nadu declared on 240 for 6 against Gujarat, who then limped to 115 for 4 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. S Badrinath led the hosts with 84, while legspinner Salil Yadav had enough time to claim 4 for 96. Tamil Nadu will now take on Haryana in Lahli for a place in the semi-finals. Badrinath’s innings took him to the top of the season’s run charts.

Quarter-finals (December 24-27, 2010)

• Baroda v Railways at Vadodara

• Haryana v Tamil Nadu at Rohtak

• M. Pradesh v Karnataka at Indore

• Rajasthan v Mumbai at Jaipur

A strong rearguard action rescued Delhi from 69 for 5 against Mumbai at the Roshanara Club Ground in New Delhi, and took them to 242 for 6, but it was an academic exercise as they had already been eliminated from the tournament. Delhi dismissed the remaining two Mumbai batsmen for the addition of just six runs to their overnight total, but were never in with a chance as they had to chase over 550 to win the game. Aavishkar Salvi did the early damage for Mumbai, taking two wickets, and it took a 106-run seventh-wicket partnership between Sumit Narwal, who raced to an unbeaten 79 from 72 balls, with nine fours and four sixes, and Rajat Batra, who ground out a patient 57 from 147 balls, to make sure Delhi ended their season with at least a draw. Mumbai move on to play Rajasthan, who progressed from the Plate League, in Jaipur.

Group B

Having already sealed Uttar Pradesh’s fate on the third day, Karnataka got in some useful batting practice on the last day at Green Park in Kanpur. Stuart Binny continued his batting form, getting his second century in three matches, as Karnataka finished the day on 537 for 4. He was supported by Ganesh Satish who made 100 not out. Binny’s 127 off 157 balls took him to 331 runs for the season in three games at 66.20. Satish’s century was his first of the season. Karnataka will travel to Indore next to play Madhya Pradesh in the quarter-finals.

In a further shake-up of Glamorgan’s structures, Matthew Maynard has resigned as the county’s director of cricket after learning that Colin Metson, an ex-county wicket-keeper and current committee member, was to be brought in above him to head Glamorgan’s coaching staff. It was believed that Maynard would then have been demoted to a lesser coaching role, but instead he opted to tender his resignation with immediate effect.”I believe my position at the club has been made untenable with the recent situation,” said Maynard, who played nearly 750 matches for the club between 1985 and 2005 and took up the role of cricket manager in 2007. “I would like to thank everyone involved with Glamorgan cricket over the last three years for their help and support. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and would like to wish the club and the players all the very best going forward.”Maynard’s resignation comes in the same week as Jamie Dalrymple’s replacement as captain by South African batsman Alviro Petersen at the county. It has emerged that Petersen did not discuss his position with Maynard before signing his contract, and it is unclear whether Dalrymple – or indeed Tom Maynard, Matthew’s son – will remain with Glamorgan.”Decisions about overseas players and captains should be made by the cricket manager and obviously this decision [to appoint Petersen] has not been made by Matthew Maynard,” former Glamorgan captain Steve James told on Tuesday, before Maynard had announced his resignation. “I’m not sure [if Maynard will leave]. I’d be very surprised if Jamie Dalrymple stays now.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has suspended the central contracts of Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, who are being investigated for their alleged involvement in spot-fixing during the tour of England in 2010. The decision was taken after Butt and Amir’s appeals against their provisional suspensions were dismissed by the ICC in Dubai on Sunday. Asif, who withdrew his appeal ahead of the hearings, also remained provisionally suspended.’We only give contracts to players who can play for Pakistan. Until their cases are decided … they can’t get any benefits from the board in terms of contracts,” PCB legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi said.Board official Zakir Khan also said the contracts had to be revoked following the ICC’s latest decision. “Their contracts were active until the appeal hearing, but once their initial appeals were rejected, under the ICC code we can’t keep them on contracts.”The board pays a monthly salary of about Rs. 250,000 ($2916) to players in the top grade, which the three suspended players are now ineligible for. Butt, Amir and Asif will appear before an independent anti-corruption tribunal that will look into the actual charges and give a verdict on whether they are innocent or guilty. Amir’s lawyer Shahid Karim told that under the ICC code of conduct, the sport’s governing body had to decide by December 2 whether to remove or retain the suspensions on the players.

Ten seasons ago, with cricket still smarting from the match-fixing blows, India and Australia created magic over three unforgettable Tests. Along with the 2005 Ashes, that series has without doubt been the best Test series in a long, long time. Since then, every arrival of the Australians in India gives Indians an excuse to reminisce about that heady series. It is an indulgence, but the memories of that series alone are enough to create anticipation every time Australia come calling.Ten seasons later, not much has changed. Match-fixing has changed its name to spot-fixing. Hardly any high-profile series goes by without controversy – look no further than the IPL, India in Sri Lanka, Pakistan in England, or even the ICC Test rankings. Cricket can definitely do with a high-quality Test series free of controversy. The controversies have so far stayed away, but the buzz that an India-Australia series should bring is building only slowly. Having been in Chandigarh for the last week or so, it just doesn’t feel like an India-Australia series is around the corner.The reasons are various. Perhaps what has happened in England has disillusioned some. Perhaps the Champions League Twenty20 kept some involved – not least four first-choice players who landed two days before the start of the series. There is, of course, the small matter of the mess masquerading as the Commonwealth Games that is hogging all sorts of headlines in India. The Ashes are an obvious distraction back in Australia.For some, India and Australia are playing each other too often – Australia have been here for some series or other for each of the last three years. The cricketing world is already limited, and these two powerful boards’ manipulation of schedules to exploit the financial opportunities in the two countries doesn’t help much either. More importantly, two Tests hardly a series make. Even earlier this year, the two-Test series against South Africa ended as soon as we had started to smack our lips with India’s rousing comeback after South Africa’s dominant start.Most importantly, perhaps, India loves it when a team comes here looking to complete its world supremacy, a sort of final frontier. The phrase rings a bell, doesn’t it? Australia are no longer that team, team to beat. This is the first time since that 2000-01 tour that they have come here as one of the pack. Nathan Hauritz is almost in awe when he talks of the Indian batting. Michael Clarke is talking up Harbhajan Singh, even his batting. Mitchell Johnson ruins the effect of the short-ball threat when, in the same sentence, he says Virender Sehwag can reach 50 by the time you look up at the scoreboard.Earlier this year, when Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel arrived as arguably the best new-ball pair in the world (well, that was before Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif came together), there was so much anticipation that you wanted India to bat first and get on with the contest between them and Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. That kind of excitement has so far been missing in the build-up to this series.Like India’s recent tour of Sri Lanka, this one promises to be a contest between two heavy-scoring batting line-ups. Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting alone have more than 25,000 Test runs between them, and 87 centuries. Two of India’s main bowlers are coming out of injuries, two of Australia’s main ones have never played a Test in India before. India’s lead spinner has averaged 46 over the last 12 months; Australia’s is not expected to run through sides either. A lot about this series is pointing to a battle of attrition.Perhaps it’s not such a bad thing to let the actual cricket benefit from low expectations. Australia may not be the best Test team in the world, but they are still a really good one. Good enough to challenge any team anywhere. They have the advantage of having gathered here early, and having put in more than a week of training. India arrived disjointedly, and have only now started functioning as a unit. If Australia feel their preparations have been disrupted by the Champions League, India’s captain was in South Africa too.Perhaps once the first Test starts on Friday morning, the cynicism will go away. When Johnson bowls the bouncers to Sehwag. When Harbhajan goes at Ponting again. When Doug Bollinger shouts at his captain from the boundary, asking for another spell. When VVS Laxman comes out to face his favourite opponents. When Gambhir and Shane Watson come face to face again. Who knows a new star might be on the horizon? Even in 2000-01, Harbhajan and Matthew Hayden were largely unknowns. Here’s to the new rivalries, the new Harbhajans and Haydens.

Kings XI Punjab, one of two IPL franchises terminated by the BCCI, has lost its second chief executive in three years. Anil Srivatsa, who joined the franchise a year ago, left the team by mutual consent on August 15. He made it clear, however, that his leaving had nothing to with the events surrounding the subsequent expulsion of the team.Srivatsa told ESPNcricinfo he had heard rumours about the board planning to expel the franchise around the time of his departure, but nobody took them seriously. He expressed disappointment at the BCCI’s decision, saying he hopes it won’t turn out to be a case of “killing the goose that laid the golden egg [the IPL]. I hope there is wisdom behind the decisions; professional wisdom rather than personal agendas.”Srivatsa left because despite hiring a chief executive, micro-management made the position redundant, something both sides came to realise. “The IPL is not a place ready for professionals yet,” he said. “If this is looked on as a business where you let your management do their job, a lot would change.”At the same time, he said the IPL was a wonderful experience and he enjoyed the challenge of building the team’s brand and creating a fan following. “IPL as a product itself was amazing. It was a learning that no other place could teach you.”Representatives for Kings XI Punjab declined to comment for this story and Srivatsa is still listed as the chief executive on the team’s website. During his tenure, Punjab finished last in the 2010 IPL and were dogged by accusations that Yuvraj Singh was deliberately underperforming after losing the captaincy to Kumar Sangakkara.Prior to joining Punjab, Srivatsa spent three years at Radio Today Broadcasting, an India Today group venture. He also has 16 years of experience in the cable distribution and broadcasting business in the United States. He had replaced Neil Maxwell, who was the chief executive for the first season.Earlier this week the IPL governing council ejected Rajasthan Royals and Punjab from the IPL on charges of breaching shareholding and ownership norms.

Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland’s chief executive, has denied that the Irish cricket team were placed under any undue pressure to travel to Zimbabwe for an Intercontinental Cup match and one-day series in September. Speculation over whether Ireland and Scotland would travel to Zimbabwe was ended when Ireland confirmed their intentions, while Scotland opted out of the tour following advice from the Scottish government against visiting the country.”Cricket Ireland had made entirely its own decision on this,” Deutrom told . “Of course we had to take the ICC’s own views, or what the international cricketing fraternity is doing, with India and Sri Lanka’s recent tours there. Clearly, that movement towards normalisation, certainly of cricketing structures in Zimbabwe, and of course the movement towards normalisation of political structures, meant it was something that we were duty bound to investigate ourselves.”Zimbabwe were originally admitted to the Intercontinental Cup on the understanding that their ‘home’ games would be played at neutral venues. There had been a possibility that South Africa would host the team’s matches, but in May the ICC related to Cricket Ireland (CI) Zimbabwe Cricket’s belief that the relative improvement in the political and cricketing structures in the country meant that it was no longer acceptable to play home matches anywhere other than Zimbabwe.CI contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Dublin and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London to seek advice on the implications of making the trip. They were given the all-clear, but although the DFA continue to have no objections to Ireland’s tour a subsequent change in the FCO’s stance led to Scotland’s decision to abandon their trip.”Back in 2008, the advice was that we shouldn’t travel from a safety and security perspective,” said Deutrom. “From a political perspective, playing cricket in Zimbabwe wasn’t something that Cricket Ireland would have even contemplated at that stage.”However, when we received the message from the ICC, and there was certainly no diktat from them, it was simply a reasonable question about what is the situation with your governments and would you be able to go back and check. We received information from the FCO and the DFA in June that they had no objection to us going.”Ireland players, team management and officials also met Zimbabwe sports minister David Coltart ahead of their decision. Coltart, a former human rights lawyer, was one of the founding members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that is now part of a unity government with Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.”There were a number of questions at the meeting relating to safety and security on the ground, relating to the situation with hotels and hospitals. I raised all of these with the minister and asked him to explain his views on that.”He also talked about the situation in the country and his own views about how he feels Zimbabwe is very similar to that in South Africa in the early 90s, when South Africa’s sporting teams were readmitted to international competition while the apartheid regime was still in power.”Ireland’s tour could run into further controversy as it will mark Phil Simmons’ first trip to the country since he was axed as Zimbabwe’s coach before taking up the role for Ireland. Simmons has taken legal action against ZC in an attempt to recover the $400,000 he claims he is still owed after being sacked without compensation with two years still remaining on his contract in 2005.”He obviously had some concerns. Phil’s previous position was that he certainly had no intention of going back to Zimbabwe,” said Deutrom. “I’m guessing this has come a little bit earlier than he would have wanted, but we’ve made sure he has as much comfort in terms of his decision to go.”I’ve spoken to him about this and he does genuinely believe that the situation has moved on significantly from when he was there, even from the situation two years ago.”

Cricket Australia has listened to the public but ignored its players after pushing through a split-innings one-day domestic trial before the national team attempts a fourth consecutive victory at next year’s World Cup. The introduction of the 45-over format means the country’s only 50-over matches in 2010-11 will occur at international level.In an unusual effort to counter the imbalance, Cricket Australia is already considering private fixtures for fringe members of the World Cup squad if they are short of game-time in the global format. The change towards the four-innings regulations for the entire domestic one-day tournament over-ruled the initial plan to break up the event, which would have scheduled traditional fixtures when the international representatives were available.Ricky Ponting, who is unbeaten as a World Cup captain, was not in favour of the alterations during the planning phase and after the announcement the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) said 78% of its surveyed members rejected the idea. Despite the criticism, Cricket Australia’s board passed the changes on Friday and the new format will begin when Queensland host Tasmania at the Gabba on October 6.James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, said the players’ views were extremely important, but they were not the only ones involved in a redesign being employed to revitalise the one-day concept. “In talking to stakeholders, the ultimate thing was the tournament should be played over the course of a whole year,” Sutherland said. “To do a proper trial and to ensure the public fully understands the way it is played. There is no doubt there are issues for individual players and preparation for the World Cup coming up.”One of the major ones is the lack of 50-over games for the squad members who will not appear regularly during the seven-match Australia-England ODI series in January and February. A 15-man World Cup unit will be named in December and Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s deputy, said the board had approved the option for “possibles versus probables” contests to ensure the right sort of preparation.”I’ll work with the selectors to determine whether they want some particular players, for example Brett Lee or Callum Ferguson, or people coming back from injury, and if that’s the case we’ll put on private matches to give them a chance to perform at optimum level for the World Cup,” Brown said. England and South Africa also don’t play any 50-over competitions at domestic level despite the ICC saying it has no plans to over-haul its preferred one-day genre.Sutherland said split innings would lead to a sense of “cat and mouse” and provide more strategy. Under the changes, the 20-over first innings will be followed by 25-over conclusions. There will be teams of 12, with only 11 batting or fielding, but no Powerplays or super strikers. Bowlers will be allowed to deliver two bouncers an over and have a maximum of 12 overs.

Key features

• 45 overs per team with split innings of 20 and 25 overs

• A maximum of 12 overs by any one bowler

• 10 wickets per team and 12 players per team – teams can bat any 11 of the 12 and field any 11 of the 12

• A maximum of two bouncers per over

• A new ball from each end at the start of the innings and no replacement new balls

• No Powerplays

• Fielding restrictions: Overs 1-5 = 2 fielders outside the circle; 6-20 = 4 outside; 21-25 = 2 outside, 26-45 = 4 outside

Paul Marsh, the ACA chief executive, said the players weren’t consulted properly until a decision had been made to push ahead with the trial. “For the people that play and know the game better than anyone, this process has been difficult to comprehend and players are very disappointed,” Marsh said. “Players are open to changes to any format of the game that can make the game better.”They acknowledge that the one-day format has had its recent challenges and as a collective they want to help those running the game find the best solution. However, the players don’t believe the split-innings format is the best solution.”Marsh was on the Cricket Australia committee – it also included Mark Taylor, Greg Chappell and Matthew Hayden – that recommended the final product, but he detailed the dissent of the ACA members. “We surveyed the players and an overwhelming majority (78%) rejected the split-innings format,” he said.”They are adamant that radical format changes are not the highest priority for the one-day game. Players continue to believe that administrators need to address the far bigger issues of the lack of context in one-day international cricket and the excessive number of one-dayers that continue to be programmed.”Sutherland said the ACA had been consulted heavily throughout the process. “The public told us to act and we have,” he said. “The fans told us, through formal research, that they like ODI cricket best, but they want to see it refreshed and they want to see it with a short-form identity that is distinctively different from fast-emerging T20 cricket.