At the same time they restore the Sheffield Shield as the centrepiece of Australia's oldest domestic cricket competition, Cricket Australia are stoking the fires of its newest.
The developing commercial and popular success of Twenty20 cricket, played domestically under the KFC Big Bash banner, will be pushed further next summer as the competition expands.
In addition to the 15 round-robin fixtures scheduled during the December/January holiday period, there will be a preliminary final between the second and third-placed teams to decide who will face the frontrunner in the trophy decider.
A bolder and bigger expansion is planned for 2009-10, the details of which are still being thrashed out by CA officials who are also trying to keep abreast of Twenty20 developments worldwide.
"We are really aware of a lot of the things that are developing at the moment in world cricket, particularly with domestic Twenty20 competitions," CA chief executive James Sutherland said today.
"We are already on the record as saying we are planning a revamp of our KFC Big Bash - it will be a larger and different scale in 2009-10.
"But at the same time we see there's lots to learn from what is going on in other parts of the world."
The crowds garnered by Twenty20 - an average of 15,000 to Australian domestic matches - opens up the possibility that CA may one day get the chance to actually make money from a domestic tournament.
Presently the Big Bash's revenue is generally eaten up by running costs, but that may change with a new format.
If it does, there will be more money to spare to aid the cause of the first class competition, which today saw the Sheffield Shield returned to its rightful place as cricket's most sought-after domestic trophy.
