Australia's summer schedule faces shake-up

Australia's Test and ODI program for next summer is set for a major overhaul, with little cricket scheduled for December and the triangular one-day series unlikely to start until February. The Age reported that India's home series against Pakistan had forced the changes as India would be unable to arrive in Australia until mid-December.

The summer would begin with two Tests against Sri Lanka in November, probably at Brisbane and Hobart, and would not resume again until the Boxing Day Test against India at Melbourne. The report said the only international games Australia would host in December before Boxing Day would be the three-match Chappell-Hadlee series with New Zealand.

The second of the four Tests against India would be held at Sydney in the first week of January - when the Test matches typically finish - before Perth and Adelaide would host the final two games later in January. The report said the one-day competition, which would feature Sri Lanka and India, would run through February and into March.

Cricket Australia told the paper the changes were unavoidable because India had to host Pakistan in November and December. "We have ten Test teams around the world and seven or eight of them are in the same time zone [season] as us," Peter Young, the CA spokesman, said. "That makes scheduling very difficult. It's like playing chess in three dimensions; every time you move one piece, it affects another piece."