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ICC open to limited-overs changes

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has agreed to conduct an experiment to split one-day matches into two innings of 25 overs for each team.

Indian great Sachin Tendulkar recently suggested 50-over matches be played over two innings to provide similar overhead conditions for both teams.

ICC cricket manager Dave Richardson said a trial could be introduced soon.

"I quite like that idea, I believe South Africa may trial something along those lines," he told BBC Sport.

"This might work in day/night cricket where one team has to bat in day and the other at night.

"It provides something different and reduces the effects on the team who loses the toss and has to bat first on a damp wicket, for example."

Richardson revealed the concept of two 25-over innings had been proposed a number of times and resurfaced once again at the ICC's cricket committee annual meeting at Lord's in May.

The proposal could breathe new life into the limited overs format, which has been increasingly threatened by the meteoric rise in popularity of Twenty20 cricket.

The England and Wales Cricket Board recently agreed to scrap the Friends Provident trophy, the only 50-over domestic cricket tournament, in favour of an expanded Twenty20 competition along with a 40-over format.

The ECB's decision was made despite the fact the Cricket World Cup and Champions Trophy, which begins on 22 September in South Africa, are played in a 50-overs format.

Tendulkar, the highest Test and one-day international run scorer in history, said 50-overs cricket is becoming too formulaic because results of "close to 75% of matches" could be predicted after the toss.

But two innings of 25 overs would create new strategies and drastically reduce the influence of winning the toss in favourable conditions.

Although Richardson is eager to prevent results becoming predictable, he is concerned that splitting the innings could take away scoring opportunities for the batsmen.

He added: "I don't necessarily like the idea of playing two matches of 25 overs each with the openers batting again. The charm of one-day cricket is seeing someone batting at four and scoring a good hundred.

"If you bat in the middle order of a Twenty20 or a new 25-over innings, you're not to get much of an opportunity to hit three figures, one downside of the Twenty20 game."

South Africa looks set to trial the changes during one of the rounds its domestic season, although a Cricket South Africa spokesman said the matter was still in discussion and no firm dates have been set.

However, Richardson said the experiment would have to be trialled successfully at domestic level before implementing any changes to the international game.

"The bottom line is if we can come up with a product that is better than the existing one, then everyone would like to look at it," he added.

"If it has been trialled successfully at domestic level, it may give the trial to give it the go-ahead at international level.

"The ICC has been proactive with ideas and innovations, like the powerplays. The idea of the 'super-sub' (scrapped in March 2006) wasn't as successful and got rid of quite quickly.

"One of the criticisms was that we trialled things at international as opposed to domestic level.

"Our tactics going forward are member countries trial changes first domestically and if they are successful, then we can take them on board at the international level."

The ICC's cricket committee is set to meet again in 2010 when the results of the experiment will be discussed.

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