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Cricket Australia (CA) has formally agreed a new split-innings format for its domestic one-day competition.

The idea of moving from a traditional 50-over competition to a model that would see both sides bat twice in a day was trailed earlier this year and has now been approved by the CA board.

The new format will see each side bat for 45 overs, split into innings of 20 and 25.

The scoring system for the competition will see one point awarded for the first-innings lead and four more for victory in the match.

"We have listened to the public, undertaken comprehensive consultation across Australian cricket and developed a format which we now want to test thoroughly this summer," said CA chief executive James Sutherland.

"The public told us to act and we have. The fans told us, through formal research, that they like all three formats.

“There is a place for three cricket formats. They like ODI cricket best, but they want to see it refreshed and they want to see it with a short-form identity that is distinctively different from fast-emerging T20 cricket.

"Interpreting the data, fans see Test cricket as the formal, long-form strategic game; they see T20 as a bite-sized piece of cricket entertainment and they think ODI cricket sits in the middle as, in a sense, a strategically based, one-day Test match."

Sutherland admits the move will not meet with universal approval but remains confident that the decision to look to new formats is the right one.

"Cricket does not always like change and I confidently predict plenty of public discussion over summer," he added.

"But we clearly need to do something to refresh the world's most popular format, we have listened to the public, consulted throughout cricket and now want to give this format a thorough trial to test it out before longer-term assessment about whether this might become an international format."