Sydney, Jan 14: Cricket Australia has decided against playing a one-day tournament in Sharjah in late March in order to concentrate on the two trophies which it has never won -- the ICC Champions Trophy and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Chief executive officer James Sutherland today said Cricket Australia had for some time been considering a Sharjah tour straight after the tour of Sri Lanka next month.
However, CA has decided it would prefer not to visit Sharjah and instead plan a warm-up series in Europe or the UK in the lead up to the Champions Trophy one-day series in England in September.
"Sharjah continues to be part of our long-term planning. But on balance, our international playing plans for 2004 are better suited planning a warm-up series after the scheduled player leave period in July-August to fine tune our form and fitness before September's ICC Champions Trophy and the subsequent Travelex Test series in India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy," he said.
"The ICC Champions Trophy has become a prestigious and permanent part of international cricket and we are keen to improve on our previous performances in this event. We have never won the championship and it and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy are two of the few global trophies we don't have in our trophy cabinet," he added.
Sutherland also said Australia was yet to decide on a tri-nation series involving India and Pakistan prior to the Champions Trophy.