'Split innings format will boost Australia's domestic cricket season'

Cricket Australia hopes the introduction of its split innings format and more Twenty20 matches will give a boost to the domestic cricket season.

Fifty-over cricket has been abandoned in favour of the National One-Day Cup, a format that divides an innings into two blocks, the first of 20 overs and the second of 25 overs.

Fans will get a first taste of the new format when Queensland and Tasmania face off at the Gabba on October 6 after CA released its domestic fixtures on Wednesday.

CA has also changed the Sheffield Shield fixtures to allow Australian Test players to represent their states before the Ashes series opener against England, starting on November 25, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

"We are excited by the new concepts set to be trialled in interstate cricket this summer and look forward to public comment the split-innings format is set to create," CA chief executive James Sutherland said.

"The opportunity for many international players to take part in a component of the ... Sheffield Shield season, which will lead in to our ... Ashes summer, is not a common occurrence and is something that I am sure Australian cricket fans will be keen to see.

"Combined with the successful KFC Big Bash, I believe this is a tremendously strong men's interstate program for 2010-11," Sutherland added.