KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Cricket are determined to keep the Chappell-Hadlee series a key part of each summer, despite an increasingly congested international fixture list.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland might have sent a shiver down NZC backs this week when he was reported as being reluctant to guarantee the future of the series between Australia and New Zealand.
But his NZC counterpart, Justin Vaughan, will press the importance of the ODI series when he meets Sutherland and other CA officials in Sydney after the second match of this summer's best-of-three series next Sunday.
Next season, New Zealand will tour Australia for three tests and will be the first guinea pig in CA's revised one-day summer, playing five ODIs, against Australia, as will South Africa, as the 28-year-old annual tri-series is set aside for two years.
That ODI contest will have a sponsor but Vaughan hopes it will be recognised as the Chappell-Hadlee series within that context.
"If you look at the Bledisloe Cup, I'm sure there's a series sponsor for that, but that doesn't stop them playing for the Bledisloe Cup," Vaughan said yesterday. "We need to figure that out, but what we want a commitment for - and I know Cricket Australia are keen to go along with it - is in years we don't have scheduled games against Australia, that we do get additional Chappell-Hadlee games into the calendar. We just have to figure our way through it."
When the Chappell-Hadlee series was announced in May 2004, it was to be on an annual basis. This will be the fourth rubber, with New Zealand holding a 5-3 lead, courtesy of their 3-0 belting of Australia last season.
New Zealand are due to host the series next summer, but Vaughan admitted squeezing in three games with incoming tours by the West Indies and India, as well as the tests and ODIs in Australia, could be stretching things too far.
In the 2009-10 season, Australia are due to tour New Zealand, as part of the Future Tours Programme, which sets out the international schedule years in advance. But beyond that, things become more clouded.
In November-December 2010, New Zealand are listed to tour India, then host Pakistan immediately afterwards. England will be in Australia for the Ashes that summer, joined by Sri Lanka in the ODIs, posing a dicey scheduling issue.
The World Cup is in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in February-March 2011, but New Zealand are due to play tests again in Australia late in 2011, opening an ODI window.
Vaughan said NZC will look to fit ODIs against Australia in each year by whatever reasonable means.
"I'm very hopeful we wouldn't have a year when we didn't have Chappell-Hadlee games, it's just whether they would be dedicated matches or fall within the regular international scheduling.
"The international calendar is very congested now, but we really want to continue on with the tradition."
Also on the agenda when Vaughan meets CA officials will be the idea of two New Zealand teams taking part in a transtasman Twenty20 series. There's plenty of talk to come before that gets past first base. Vaughan said in conceptual terms CA likes the idea.
"But no one has done the numbers or looked at the calendars to see how we could fit it in. But Cricket Australia are very warm to the idea."
Two possible scenarios are for two New Zealand teams - either the leading domestic provinces or North and South Island composite sides - to play two or four Australian states in a short playoff format; or two New Zealand teams to join the six Australian states in a full round robin Tasman league.
"Time is the pressure. We try and fit in so much cricket and we don't have as long a season as Australia," Vaughan said. "We've got to make sure we in no way diminish our own competitions. There's a lot to work through but I'm really keen on getting more playing opportunities against Australia below straight international level."
