Ashes Series safe from world championship

``We've always made it quite clear that series like the Ashes and other important Test match series cannot be threatened by a concentration of the tour programme or the introduction of a Test world championship,'' ICC chief executive David Richards of Australia said.

The ICC will study proposals this weekend to establish a new cycle of fixtures to ensure the smaller Test-playing nations get a chance to face countries like Australia, England and the West Indies Cricket. This was believed to mean England and Australia would have to drop their five-Test series for a three-Test schedule.

But Richards added: ``While we're trying to strengthen Test cricket, at no stage are we trying to weaken the strong bits and one of the strong bits is the Ashes.

``I don't see there being any chance at all that the Ashes will be under threat.''

Proposals for a world championship would be to play a two-month tournament every four years between the eight Test-playing countries or to reduce the number of one-day matches to give more time for every country to play each other over four years. The team with the best record over the four year-period would be declared world champions.

``I think we've peaked in terms of the one-day cricket and now it's a matter of getting the right balance between the two forms of the game,'' Richard said.

Despite their emphatic 3-1 win over England in the just-completed series, Australia captain Mark Taylor pleaded for the traditional five-Test formula to be retained.