Channel 9 to fight for survival of 50-over cricket in Australia

Channel 9, the broadcaster with the biggest say in Australia's cricket future, says it will fight for the survival of 50-over cricket.

Channel 9 chief executive David Gyngell said the 50-over game needed a lift, but Nine was hoping to work with Cricket Australia to ensure the three forms of the game can continue to co-exist.

"There is no doubt the Twenty20 format is on the march and the one-day series needs to be revitalised, but let's compare apples to apples at the right time when the English team is out here next year," The Herald Sun quoted Gyngell, as saying.

"We have a very dominant Australian side, which is good news against weak opposition (Pakistan and the West Indies) this year, but we won't really get an understanding until we see the Ashes summer (which will feature seven 50-over games)," he said.

Though attendances at 50-over games have fallen this season, Gyngell said "the one-day game is very solid for us ... we are improvers not destroyers of it. We often note how we feel when we are watching it and there are definitely parts of the 50-over game that you can feel fall flatter than a Twenty20 game."

"Maybe we need to have another power play, but unfortunately if you do it feels like you are having one long power play. There is a place for it. We have to think about how we evolve it. I don't think it can all be Twenty20 because it becomes not like the real deal," he said.

Gyngell also said that Nine was interested in bidding for the rights to the Twenty20 Big Bash, which has been the summer's smash hit. Fox Sports has the rights to the Big Bash for another three years, but Gyngell said Nine was likely to be a bidder in the future.