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Ashes must be top priority: Gilchrist

Source: The Age - April 24, 2006

Vice-captain Adam Gilchrist has flagged the possibility of Australia resting players from this year's ICC Champions Trophy as the side makes regaining the Ashes its top priority.

The national side is set to have a five-month break from international competition after this month's tour of Bangladesh.

Gilchrist believed keeping players as fresh as possible for the much-anticipated Ashes series starting November 23 in Brisbane was important.

But Cricket Australia operations manager Michael Brown shot down Gilchrist's suggestion by stating that Australia intended on taking a full strength side to the ICC tournament.

It is understood that England is considering resting key players such as Andrew Flintoff from the biennial event in a bid to recharge their batteries following a hectic home summer.

"I think we have to look very, very seriously at that lead into the Ashes, definitely," Gilchrist said.

"There is the Champions Trophy and I believe there are potential other games of one-day cricket that may come up prior to that.

"We are going to have to be very careful about what we want to prioritise as most important.

"We have to get our priorities right there.

"It is important that selectors, administrators, players and whoever else needs to be involved sits down and nuts that out. I am not saying no-one goes, or all key players (don't go) ... I don't know.

"But we have to sit down and address it, definitely."

Brown said Australia was focused on trying to win the Champions Trophy for the first time.

"We are worried about the whole seven months of cricket, the ICC Champions Trophy is clearly important to Cricket Australia," he said.

"We will be sending a very, very good team, the best team available at the time."

Brown put the Champions Trophy on an equal footing in terms of importance with the Ashes.

"For us, the ICC tournaments are of No.1 importance. We have never won the Champions Trophy and would like to win it, no question," he said.

"It is a bit like the World Cup. We always recognise the importance of being strong in the world sense.

"Part of our strategic plan is to lead the world in cricket performance, so to entertain the thought that we are going to be mass resting players is not going to happen.

"What we will do is individually manage every player's workload over the period because let's not forget that some players over the next 12 months play very little cricket."

Australia is expected to agree shortly to play a short triangular one-day series in India before the Champions Trophy.

Gilchrist's comments follow skipper Ricky Ponting's remarks last week that Australia's schedule of playing five Tests in five weeks in South Africa and then Bangladesh was "not acceptable".

The Australian players had a say in the scheduling and could have had an extra week off before flying to Bangladesh but were keen to knock the tour off and make an early start to their lengthy break.

Gilchrist felt the international cricket calendar was only going to increase because of the enormous amounts of money being made in the sport.

"I can't see how it is going to get less busy, with the money being generated in cricket these days," Gilchrist said.

"That is great for the business aspect (of the sport), but I think it is going to get to a point where players will have to work out what their time span in the game is, and what their career path is.

"There are big decisions there."

The Australian team flew back to Dhaka with the second of the three-game series on Wednesday.