Steve Smith, Kane Williamson keen for international cricket league

Iain Strachan

Steve Smith, Kane Williamson keen for international cricket league image

Steve Smith and Kane Williamson endorsed calls for a new format to one-day international fixtures after a flat final game of the series between Australia and New Zealand.

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With Australia leading 2-0 and the three-match series already decided, a crowd of little over 20,000 was scattered around the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday, as the hosts won by 117 runs to seal a whitewash.

There have been suggestions the International Cricket Council could introduce a league structure to ensure there is something to play for throughout each series, and the two captains tentatively welcomed the concept. 

"There's been a few proposals that have come up and you want as much relevance for every series as possible," Smith said. 

"This series has been a great series, New Zealand are always fantastic to play against, they're tough competitors and it was no different this series. 

"I'm proud of the way our guys played. After a tough tour to South Africa, where we lost 5-0, it was nice to turn things around and win every game in this series."

Black Caps skipper Williamson added of the potential changes: "There's a lot of chat about that at the moment.

"To be fair it's quite hard to look or think about it too much, there's so much cricket going on that you're very much focused on the next game, trying to be better as a side and that's certainly my focus. 

"It would be great to have as much meaning on every game as you can. From our side's perspective it's about getting better and every game's an opportunity to do that."

Iain Strachan