06 February 2004	Friday	14 Zilhaj 1424

SYDNEY, Feb 5: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has agreed in principle to hold a one million US dollar "Best v The Rest" super series pitting the top Test team against the rest of the world's best players.

Australian newspapers and Wisden Online on Thursday quoted an ICC spokesman in London as saying under the plan the top-ranked Test and one-day teams - currently Australia - would play an all-star World XI in one Test and three one-day games next year in South Africa for one million dollars in prizemoney.

The idea received initial support at a recent ICC board meeting and has now moved closer to reality after receiving the in-principle approval of all 10 Test-playing nations, the reports said.

The ICC holds its next meeting in New Zealand next month when the plans could be finalised.

The plan looked likely to run into opposition from some players who have already been complaining about the heavy workload they face. But it would offer some promising cricket if Australia, who won the World Cup and claimed then top Test ranking last year, face the 11 best from the other nine cricketing nations.

Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting and Saurav Ganguly gave cautious approval to a proposed world-best cricket tournament.

While Ponting and Ganguly welcomed the concept, they pointed to concerns in the game about an overload in international cricket schedules.

Australia, most likely the number one team, will have an Ashes series next year in England before the proposed tournament. "I think it (the international schedule) is pretty full, yeah," Ponting said on Thursday.

"I think you only have to look at this year's program, next year's program to understand that there's not much room for too much more cricket in there.

"I suppose it is a little bit of a concern for the player group, that's it's going to be an extra Test and an extra three one-dayers but it will just depend how we're feeling at the time, even if it is us."

Wisden said its dream team would be: Michael Vaughan (England), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Rahul Dravid (India), Brian Lara (West Indies, captain), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Vangipurappu Laxman (India), Mark Boucher (South Africa), Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Shane Bond (New Zealand), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) and Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan). -AFP